Residents across Orange County are increasingly speaking out against the proliferation of automated license plate readers on street corners in the region, raising concerns the cameras are an invasion of privacy.
Critics also worry the cameras could be used to track innocent residents and the data and footage collected could be shared with federal agencies as the county continues to reel from deportation sweeps that kicked up last year.
Tanya Navarro, the organizing director for Chispa, said the cameras won’t keep residents of OC’s only Sanctuary City safe.
“Our community never wanted this. When they approved this technology, they justified it by claiming it would make us safer from criminals. That’s how entire communities become criminalized. When I look at Santa Ana, I don’t see a city full of criminals. I don’t see a city full of suspects,” she said at a news conference last week…