It\u2019s a story out of Austin, Texas, with clear implications for every town where the left dominates.<\/p>\n
Austin officials last year celebrated their elimination of license-plate-reading cameras; they\u2019ve gone quiet since an insane crime spree \u2014 three teens on a 30-hour tear<\/a> involving 12 shootings and five stolen cars \u2014 ended only when they strayed into neighboring town, whose plate-readers allowed its police to nab the perps<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other words, killing the cameras simply allowed criminals to elude the cops in precisely the way that this kind of surveillance tech is designed to defeat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anything that helps crimefighting annoys the left, which always whines that it\u2019s not \u201cdata-driven\u201d or doesn\u2019t support \u201creal public safety\u201d \u2014 excuses the Austin City Council seized upon as it ditched the cameras. <\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Of course, automatically reading license plates to immediately locate stolen cars is a prime example of \u201cdata-driven\u201d policing.<\/p>\n The real issue? Well, Austin City Councilwoman Natasha Harper-Madison fretted, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be part of a system that inadvertently harms.\u201d<\/p>\n Harms who? <\/p>\n Yes, civil liberties obsessives<\/a> point to how an overreaching government could abuse such tech, but any tool can be abused: The answer is to impose the correct restrictions on its use, not to ban it completely.<\/p>\n No, the real problem is that this tech works too well, reducing car theft and helping to nab criminals.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Cue the bogus \u201cracist\u201d charge: The New York Civil Liberties Union whines, \u201cThe New York City Police Department\u2019s surveillance machinery disproportionally<\/a> threatens the rights of non-white New Yorkers\u201d \u2014 though none of this tech focuses on perps\u2019 race.<\/p>\n