For $2.2 million each year, law enforcement representatives said Tuesday, Utah can build and run a real-time, next-generation surveillance apparatus that combines public social media posts, traffic cameras and other data sources to decrease police response times, keep interstate traffic flowing and save lives.
“It tells you where to look for the needle in the haystack,” said Ric Cantrell, chief of staff to Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. “So it will shave hours down to minutes.”
But those plans were met with vocal skepticism by Utah legislative leaders, who worried the plans could be a step toward an Orwellian, “North Korea-esque” abuse of personal privacy by state government.