Republican lieutenant gubernatorial nominee John Wahl spoke out against Flock Safety cameras during an interview Tuesday, arguing the automated license plate readers violate the U.S. Constitution.
According to the former Alabama Republican Party chairman, the controversial technology runs afoul of the Fourth Amendment.
“The Flock camera issue comes after pretty much one thing: is it constitutional? I’m a strong supporter of the Constitution. I am a constitutionalist,” Wahl said. “I believe a lot of our problems can be solved by going back to the basics, by understanding the vision of our founding fathers and why they secured the liberties and the rights they did. I believe that our rights come from our Creator; they don’t come from government. And government can’t just change what your rights are. These are transcendent rights that our founding fathers recognized and guaranteed in the Constitution, and one of those is the Fourth Amendment.”
Concerns over ‘mass collection’
Wahl expressed concern about the “mass collection” of private citizens’ information made possible by the technology.
“The people of this country have a right to be safe and secure in their property, to not have searches without warrants, to have the ability to travel in privacy, and so I think the question is: Are Flock cameras constitutional? I think they are not. I think the mass collection of information on innocent, average, everyday voters and citizens is unconstitutional.”
A proposed path forward
Wahl offered a solution for those who disagree with his view of the cameras’ constitutionality.
“If someone doesn’t like it, they should bring up changing the Constitution. Don’t ignore the rules we have in place, but make the argument to the public of why they should,” he explained. “I think the argument should be taken to the public, and they should have a chance to vote on it or decide, rather than them just having mass amounts of data collected on them without their permission.”