OPINION —
Dear editor, the Sept. 17 Observer headline blared: “WHO’S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?”
It pulsates with relevance and recrimination. Why? Flock Safety’s automated license plate reader cameras possess immense capability for good and evil. An Aug. 28, 2026, Newsweek article showed 149 entities nationwide have canceled Flock contracts, rejected proposed deployments or deactivated existing cameras.
The Newsweek article addressed constitutional issues — camera intrusiveness, mass surveillance and potential Fourth Amendment violation. The Observer’s clarion call epitomizes investigative journalism that provokes intelligent action. The Washington Post stated their investigation spurred disciplinary action against officers accused of abusing Flock technology. The Post wrote departments weren’t looking for officers abusing Flock, we did it for them.
On Sept. 1 , the Lee County Sheriff’s Department dismissed a deputy for violating policies about the technology. The officer should be decertified and, if applicable, prosecuted. In a neighboring state, four Savannah, Georgia, police department employees and several Albany officers were arrested and charged with violation of oath of office, a felony and misusing a police systems/technology based on internal audits.
Why is decertifying dismissed officers imperative? Ben Grunwald and John Rappaport co-authored a 30-year investigation of full-time Florida officers. They conducted the first systematic investigation of wandering officers/fired officers, and possibly the largest quantitative study of police misconduct of any kind.
They found that during any given year, departments across Florida hire 1,100 officers who had been fired by other agencies. Fired then rehired officers are fired twice as often than never fired officers, compounded by their tendency to commit moral character transgressions and physical and sexual misconduct. Furthermore, this systematic treachery has precedence.
In 1971, a group broke into the Media, Pennsylvania, FBI office, stole secret documents mailed copies to journalists. The documents revealed that the hallowed FBI had engaged in decades-long illegal spying campaign against citizens, including Olympic Gold medalist Rafer Johnson and Doris Day. The bureau targeted Black people, student groups, anti-war organizations, communists and anyone they deemed subversive. The bureau approved 2,370 so-called counterintelligence operations.
Therefore, Johnnie Cochran’s “Who’s going to police the police…” in his September 1995 closing argument proves a conceptual modern day “WHO’S WATCHING THE WATCHERS?”
Marc D. Greenwood
Opelika
