Providing evidence yet again for my theory that the political continuum is a circle rather than a straight line, libertarian Republican state Rep. David Boyer of Poland and left-wing Democratic former Senate President Troy Jackson have found an issue on which they agree: banning Flock cameras.

Flock cameras are small, unobtrusive cameras designed to monitor public spaces for police departments and identify vehicles. This is nothing new; public police surveillance cameras and automated license plate recognition cameras have been dotting the American landscape for decades.

What’s new about the Flock cameras is that they incorporate artificial intelligence to make it easier for police to identify vehicles through more than just plates: they use model, color, accessories like roof racks and damage as well. According to Flock, the cameras identify vehicles rather than individuals: they don’t incorporate facial recognition.

These cameras are just the latest iteration of a longstanding technology, really. They’re already banned for use by private property owners; Jackson and Boyer want to make the ban all-encompassing. 

Nevertheless, the devices have drawn ire from privacy advocates in Maine and around the nation as they’ve been deployed, and that’s perfectly understandable. In response, Boyer has sponsored legislation to ban them completely statewide that will be considered next session. He’s also working with fellow state Reps. Quentin Chapman and Laurel Libby, both Republicans representing Auburn, to collect signatures for a local referendum to ban their use there. 

While a sweeping statewide ban is a step too far, a local referendum to ban them in one particular city or town makes perfect sense. That’s not an endorsement of a ban, but of the process. It’s entirely appropriate that citizens of Auburn, or any other municipality, have the right to weigh in on using the technology. If the people of Auburn don’t want it used, they can stop it; if they have no objections, they can allow them to be deployed. That preserves local control and local input.

A statewide ban does the opposite. It usurps the authority of local governments all over the state in order to impose a new edict from Augusta. Any proposals in that vein are usually a bad idea, as I’ve written on numerous occasions.

We ought to trust municipalities all over the state to govern themselves and do what’s best for their communities, usurping their authority only when absolutely necessary. What’s best for Bangor or Wiscasset might not be what’s best for Portland or for Hallowell. That’s not only the wise approach, it’s the conservative small government approach, so it’s especially disappointing to see a Republican legislator proposing a statewide ban of, well, almost anything.

There is a reasonable middle ground between a statewide ban and a complete free-for-all that leaves authority in the hands of local governments while addressing privacy concerns.

What Maine needs to do with Flock cameras, as it ought to with AI data centers, is establish a minimum statewide standard for how they’re deployed and used. In fact, we ought to have done this with private property owners as well, rather than simply barring them from their use. If we establish that standard going forward, perhaps we can lift that ban and apply the new standard to private property owners as well.

We can set a statewide standard that addresses many of the concerns of critics, such as how long the data may be retained and how it can be used. We can also set standards to ensure that they comply with state and federal highway safety rules and regulations. All of that is not only perfectly reasonable, but vitally important. Any cameras placed along the side of the road should be done so safely, and all Mainers should be confident that police won’t simply record constantly and save all of the footage forever.

What is not reasonable is to immediately ban new technology that comes along simply because we have concerns about how it may be used. Historically, Maine hasn’t simply imposed sweeping bans of new technology the minute they came along. We didn’t bar the use of automobiles in Maine after the first car accident happened.

Instead, we gradually developed reasonable regulations and laws to govern their use, and that’s what we ought to do here. It’s all too easy for populists to scream for a ban; it’s much harder to thoughtfully develop reasonable regulations. Still, the latter is what Mainers deserve — whether it’s a Flock camera or any other new technology.