We are officially living in that dystopian future the books warned us about.
From the rise of AI, to the dwindling sense of privacy, American citizens are more and more heading into a state of constant surveillance — whether they’re aware and consent to it or not. All around us are increasingly invasive monitoring technologies that are being discreetly placed in our local businesses, neighborhood streets, shopping centers, and more. Buckle up, because we have quite the list.
For Last Week Tonight with John Oliver watchers, police surveillance technology was a topic discussed in Sunday’s episode. For those who didn’t tune in, allow us to give you a rundown of some of the surveillance tech you may have NO CLUE is all around you.
Cameras
We’d be hard pressed to learn of anyone who ISN’T aware of cameras being used by police departments to aid in investigations. We mean, they’re stationed on stop lights, in restaurants, on our own front porches, and more. However, the way they’re being used in association with crime is evolving in a concerning way. Oliver argued that cameras are no longer being used exclusively to see replays of alleged crimes… they’re being used to “fish for crimes that they think might [happen]” as a “digital form of stop and frisk.”
One example the host provided was for a New Orleans man named Michael Celestine, who was unlawfully arrested in 2020. Police used street cams to allegedly racially profile and track him for 15 minutes because they believed he had a “suspicious bulge in his jacket.” It should be noted he was wearing a bulky puffer jacket as it was January, and that even if he did have a “bulge,” the state of Louisiana authorizes concealed carry. Per reports, police “chased,” then “arrested” and “stunned” Michael with a taser before finding a weapon in his pant leg. The DA later dropped all charges, but because he was “out on parole,” he couldn’t make bail and ended up being in jail for an entire YEAR.
If that doesn’t scare you enough, allow us to introduce you to FUSUS.
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The tech allows police to “automatically request footage from all nearby businesses at the click of a button. And camera owners can securely share recorded, as well as live, video feeds to aid in the investigation.” It’s also partnered with “Amazon’s Ring doorbells to livestream to an RTCC (real-time crime centers).”
And while you may be thinking, “I’ll just opt out of that,” Oliver pointed out that as of July 2023, FUSUS tech was deemed mandatory in Rialto, California for anyone starting a business.
Microphones
Not all street cams are equipped with microphone technology, and vice versa. Enter: ShotSpotter, tech that alerts authorities if it senses loud noises that could be gunshots. In Houston, the technology is already so heavily relied on that cops no longer respond to every call reporting gunfire, but “treat every ShotSpotter alert as a top-priority report.” However, the Associated Press has found problems with the tech:
“The system can miss live gunfire right under its microphones … or misclassify the sounds of fireworks … as gunshots.”
It’s also been discovered that cars backfiring and construction equipment like nails guns can trigger alerts, and citizens have already been searched and arrested because of misreads. Oliver also pointed out that actual evidence confirming the tech prevents crime is sparse. A news station in Minneapolis combed through two years of ShotSpotter and found that police responded to 8,500 ShotSpotter alerts, and about 80 percent of the time, officers “documented no evidence of gun-related crime.” Only 32 alerts, or less than 1 percent of responses, led to actual arrests.
Automated License Plate Readers
This is where things start to get REALLY dystopian. In case you haven’t heard of Flock, it’s tech that sells itself on automatically reading license plates to help search for missing and stolen vehicles. That in and of itself doesn’t sound too terribly treacherous, but the reality is the cameras don’t limit their scans to stolen cars — they photograph EVERY car that passes by and documents the time and location. So the more cameras a driver passes, the more detailed a picture of a given driver’s movement is mapped out. All the data is saved for 30 days in Flock databases to be shared with police departments to determine where you were and at what times — with NO warrant required — whether you’re suspected of a crime or not.
The controversial technology has already been abused, showing instances of officers stalking women. Also, in 2025, a Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputy in Texas searched the nationwide Flock network, which includes over 83,000 cameras, to track a woman in an abortion case, even accessing cameras in states where reproductive laws are protected.
@aaronparnas1 7/28
♬ original sound – Aaron Parnas
Additionally, controversial agencies like ICE have been known to exploit the tech. Learn more about the dangers of Flock tech from a former cop (below):
@godschosan1 #flockcameras #driverslicense #licenseplate #privacy #rights
♬ original sound – Hector
Cell-Site Simulators
Now this tech is just downright DUBIOUS. In case you’ve never heard of Stingray, allow us to school you. And we’re not talking about marine animals!
Stingray allows cops to tap into ANY and EVERY cellphone in their vicinity. The device, often hidden, mimics the signal of a cell tower, so your device’s signal and information connects to it instead of the legitimate cell tower. That means all your phone call records, texts, and more feed directly into the surveillance device, where they’re stored away.
What’s terrifying is that all the above technology feeds, which is placed disproportionately in communities of color, lead directly into real-time crime centers to create “predictive policing,” or an algorithm designed to identify who and what should be monitored more closely based on their history and movements. Learn more about the controversial method of policing (below):
You can watch the full Last Week Tonight episode (below):
What are your reactions after learning of all this, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments down below.
[Images via Image created for PerezHilton.com]
