A New York town is in turmoil after it emerged that police installed dozens of AI surveillance cameras without permission from local officials, sparking a fierce battle between residents and the Democratic city council and the Republican mayor and police.
The uproar began when Dierdre Shea, a mom living in Troy, spotted a camera topped with a solar panel at the end of her block while walking her newborn. While researching the contraption, she learned that it was an AI-assisted license plate reader, the same type of camera that privacy advocates have raised concerns over across the nation in recent months.
Laws in more than a dozen states already limit their use. Dierdre notified her neighbors of the cameras, igniting a heated debate in the 52,000-person town, The Washington Post reports…