Be assured, citizen, that the mass surveillance state is being put to good use.
Earlier this month, the Albany Police Department in Georgia made a post on Facebook asking the public to help identify a man guilty of a despicable crime: picking up $30 off the floor that he found in a Walmart.
Surveillance cameras had caught the villain in the act, and the police department attached a grainy photo of him — an older gentleman — hoping to track him down.
“This individual picked up the money and did not turn it in to the employees,” the department wrote in the August 18 post, describing his treacherous exploits. It then asked anyone with information that could help identify the man to reach out.
But, as Local 12 news noticed, the public wasn’t on board. Thousands of comments flooded the post mocking the department for spending its time on such a trivial matter. Some wondered whatever happened to the age-old law of “finders keepers.”
In other online spaces, the department’s post sparked discussions about surveillance and its abuses — a touchy issue right now, with the overwhelming public backlash against the AI-powered surveillance company Flock and its vast network of cameras blanketing the country.
Flock argues that its cameras, which are nominally intended to scan license plates, could help solve crimes and find missing persons. But in practice, the cameras are being used to closely monitor spaces far removed from traffic like residential areas and even swimming pools, while ICE is tapping into the network to round up people for deportation. Countless cops, meanwhile, are abusing the cameras to stalk women.
Some FBI data has suggested that the increase of Flock and other surveillance cameras hasn’t had any impact on fighting crime in cities like Atlanta, where clearance rates for offenses like homicide have stayed the same.
So if the panopticon isn’t good at solving crimes, what is it good for? We return to our earlier exhibit: punishing meaningless offenses.
“This is what the growth of surveillance is going to bring,” wrote journalist and podcaster Robert Evans on Bluesky. “Not safety from crime, but new, non-criminal acts redefined as criminal so as to give the police an excuse to exercise power.”
The Albany police department shared a pressing update on Saturday saying that the man returned the money to the “victim.”
“The victim initially wished to pursue charges, but after the money was returned, advised that they no longer wished to press charges,” it wrote. “No charges will be filed.”
Another hard day’s work in surveillance land.
More on crime: Grand Jury Declines to Indict Man Caught on Camera Destroying Flock Pole
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