By Rep. Lauren Boebert | Commentary, Daily Caller
As we near the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, I write in defense of freedom not as a politician seeking applause, but as a Coloradan, a mother, a grandmother, and a fierce defender of the liberties that define this nation. Fixed license plate reader cameras are quietly turning American streets into zones of constant monitoring. These systems continuously scan and record vehicle plates, logging time, location, and travel patterns. In community after community, this infrastructure has often expanded without explicit statutory authorization, clear democratic limits, or the individualized suspicion that a warrant typically requires. It is simply happening. The result is a growing database of everyday movements — where people work, worship, shop, and take their children — compiled without the consent of the governed.
Since September 11, 2001, Americans have been asked repeatedly to trade pieces of liberty for promises of security. The Patriot Act and related measures expanded government surveillance powers in ways earlier generations would have rejected. Many of those steps were advanced with the best of intentions. The justification was almost always the same: “If you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about.” That phrase has become the soft rationalization for hard erosions of privacy. It shifts the burden onto citizens to prove they deserve freedom rather than requiring government to justify intrusion. The Constitution does not work that way.
Automatic license plate readers take this logic further. Fixed camera networks treat the general public as a pool of potential data points. Patterns of daily life are recorded and retained, sometimes for months or years. When citizens or lawmakers raise concerns, the pushback is frequently emotional rather than constitutional. Questioning these systems is framed as a failure to support police. Let me be clear: no one backs the blue more than I do. I have stood with officers, defended their ability to do their jobs, and rejected the reckless rhetoric that endangered both law enforcement and the communities they protect. Supporting the men and women who wear the badge does not require surrendering the Bill of Rights. My mission is freedom. Cameras on every street corner tracking free citizens is not freedom. It is the opposite.
The problem deepens when the data leaves legitimate policing. Information is often shared widely, retained far longer than necessary, and in some cases made available to government agencies through commercial data vendors. When the movements of millions of Americans become a commodity that enriches a few while the many are cataloged, we have moved from public safety into the monetization of liberty itself. Ordinary people become the product. That is a manipulation of freedom, not its protection.
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