Flock Around and Find Out: Let’s Put City Hall Under Surveillance

Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen and her four council dwarfs love of mass surveiilance have inspired a wonderful idea.

Let’s watch them!

Their support for automated license plate surveillance has certainly given residents something to think about: Who gets to track our movements, who gets access to that information, and why are we supposed to find all this comforting?

Apparently, privacy is one of those luxuries responsible citizens should surrender so elected officials can feel responsible. As if they're actually doing their jobs and not mugging for social media posts or political attack commercials.

Fine. Leadership begins with sacrifice.

You first, Madam Mayor.

Let’s install a public, round-the-clock video feed at every City Hall entrance. Front doors, back doors, side doors. Any entrance large enough to accommodate a consultant carrying a proposal deserves its own camera.

Residents could watch who visits, how long they stay, and whether the same visitor returns shortly before a particularly enthusiastic council vote.

No accusations. Just data collection.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it!

Next, cameras inside every closed-session meeting. In the pro-citizen imaginary transparency package, taxpayers could inspect whatever dinner accompanies the people’s confidential business.

Tonight’s special: public trust, lightly grilled, served beneath a generous reduction of disclosure.

More importantly, the feed could also show who enters. Because while residents may struggle to get three minutes at a microphone, it's reassuring to know nobody else gets an unannounced seat behind the curtain.

Then come the city hall offices of the mayor and her four dwarfs.

Two cameras in opposite corners. One trained on the entrance. And, for comprehensive coverage, another nestled in the credenza.

A government cabinet that actually promotes transparency. Finally, furniture with a public purpose.

For good measure, we could add another camera that is on a back-and-forth rotation.

Of course, public business sometimes happens away from City Hall. That calls for a GoPro strapped to each elected melon.

Think of it as a body camera for the body politic.

Lunch with a developer? Recorded. Coffee with a lobbyist? Recorded. A hypothetical encounter with a garbage hauler or recycler? Smile. The taxpayers are watching.

Nobody is alleging a crime. That’s the beauty of the arrangement: We collect everything now and decide later whether it matters when a bribe or payoff does happen, because we know it will. It's only a matter of time.

What an efficient philosophy. Where have we heard it before?

And imagine the innovation.

In the absurd commercial future this technology of mass surveillance invites us to picture, a camera spots a dent in your fender, and your phone immediately chirps: “We noticed your damage. Bob’s Auto Body has a special offer!”

That hasn’t yet happened with Flock. But “your movements are valuable” could work as a business slogan and a great revenue stream for Flock, so much so that they'd give the service to the city for free just to bombard you with surveillance advertising!

Our City Hall system could have its own helpful notifications.

“Your mayor has remained with the same visitor for 47 minutes. Would you like to purchase enhanced transparency?”

Naturally, officials might object. A recording could lack context.

An innocent meeting could look suspicious. Someone could misuse the footage. They might simply want to go about their day without strangers compiling a searchable history of their activities.

Goodness. They’re catching on.

Perhaps they'll suddenly discover you don’t have to be hiding something to expect privacy.

We should record that statement. For training purposes.

Until then, let’s hear the mayor and her four dwarfs enthusiastically volunteer for the same comforting scrutiny they impose on everyone else.

Twenty-four hours a day. Every entrance. Every meeting. Every politically convenient cup of coffee or sip of Dom Pérignon.

After all, they keep promising transparency. We're simply proposing better lighting.