Armstrong Economics: 29-07-2026,
Governments never seize freedom all at once. They chip away at it piece by piece, each new program marketed as a way to save taxpayers money or improve efficiency. The latest example comes from Cape Coral, Florida, where city officials are considering equipping sanitation trucks with AI-powered cameras to scan neighborhoods for potential code violations as they make their normal garbage collection routes. Officials insist the technology is simply another tool that could reduce costs and help the city’s 31 code enforcement officers identify violations more efficiently. That is always how surveillance begins, with promises of convenience rather than control.
The city manager argued that artificial intelligence could perform the same work as additional code officers while saving taxpayer dollars. Residents, however, immediately raised the questions governments rarely answer. Who controls the data? How long is it stored? Who has access to it? Could it later be used for purposes never originally disclosed? Those are legitimate concerns because history demonstrates that once governments collect information, they rarely surrender the ability to collect even more. Every database eventually finds a new purpose.
I have warned repeatedly that society is drifting toward a surveillance state where governments monitor virtually every aspect of daily life. License plate readers were introduced to catch criminals. Smart utility meters were sold as a way to improve energy efficiency. CCTV cameras appeared for public safety. Smartphones track our movements, financial transactions leave permanent digital records, and now artificial intelligence is being proposed to examine residential neighborhoods automatically.