She Got an Abortion. So A Texas Cop Used 83,000 Cameras to Track Her Down.
She Got an Abortion. So A Texas Cop Used 83,000 Cameras to Track Her Down.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/45678297
In a chilling sign of how far law enforcement surveillance has encroached on personal liberties, 404 Media recently revealed that a sheriff’s office in Texas searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion. The officer searched 6,809 different camera networks maintained by surveillance tech company Flock Safety, including states where abortion access is protected by law, such as Washington and Illinois. The search record listed the reason plainly: “had an abortion, search for female.”
It's very telling that nothing close to mainstream news has covered this.
This headline makes it sound like the police hunted someone down for having an abortion, but in fact the woman's family reported her missing, and the police used this database to try to locate her in that capacity. The potential for misuse is certainly there, but isn't what happened here
Why did she "go missing" ?
Because she needed privacy to get an abortion from the police in Texas.
Why didn't she want to tell her family where she was ?
Because it would implicate them in her having an abortion which is her right.
Her abortion is not Texas' nor her family's business. And making excuses for that dynamic is white knighting authoritarian abuses.
The search record listed the reason plainly: “had an abortion, search for female.”
that sounds like something that would happen in a dystopian oppressive government.