Would You Share Your Security Camera Feed With the Police? 38% of Users Say Yes—Under This Condition

Protecting and Serving: A Matter of Trust

Understanding public opinion about police surveillance technology requires addressing America’s relationship with law enforcement. Assessing this dynamic is difficult, as perceptions sway drastically over time with headlines, politics, and demographics.

In the wake of high-profile misconduct like the murder of George Floyd, disillusioned masses called for de-funding the police. When crime rates elevated during the pandemic, many sought safety by re-funding local departments. Parallel social movements have pitted Black lives versus “blue” lives, and recent presidential candidates campaigned on very different platforms regarding police accountability.

Through the recent turmoil, Americans have predominantly backed law enforcement. Even as faith in the government has generally declined, citizens’ confidence in the police has remained higher than most institutions.

Our study found that nearly 60 percent of the nation trusts their local law enforcement.

That support varied widely, however, by race, political affiliation, and age. Nearly two-thirds of White adults trust local authorities, compared to only half of people of color. This disparity isn't surprising, given the nation's pervasive issues with racial inequities throughout the justice system.

The most glaring disparity in trust fell across generational lines. While more than 70 percent of older citizens (Boomers, Gen X) put faith in local police, less than half of younger Americans (Gen Z, Millennials) exhibited the same confidence. Having found that Americans generally have faith in law enforcement, we next investigated whether citizens trust the police to deploy emerging surveillance technology safely.

Does Police Technology Help or Hurt Public Safety?

While new law enforcement technologies can help prevent and solve crimes, they also risk potentially infringing on civil rights. Despite Americans' general trust in law enforcement, there are concerns about police departments' ability to deploy emerging surveillance tools safely. Some of these tools include drones, license plate scanners, crime-prediction algorithms, and body-worn cameras.

Nearly three-fourths of respondents in our study felt law enforcement technology generally improves public safety.

Support for law enforcement technology remains high across demographic groups, with at least two-thirds of even the least trusting populations acknowledging its safety benefits. Support for police technology use was highest among white, older, and Republican respondents.

Despite recognizing that policing technology provides general security benefits, many Americans harbor concerns regarding certain technology applications. Sixty percent of adults said that certain surveillance and monitoring devices would make them feel less safe if police used them in their communities.

Most notably, one-third of adults would feel “somewhat” or “very” unsafe if their local law enforcement agencies deployed facial recognition technology. According to the Electronic Frontiers Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance project, facial recognition is currently deployed by an estimated 20 percent of police departments. At least one in four people said they’d feel unsafe if their local police used predictive policing algorithms, surveillance drones, or an open database of private security cameras.

These results show that people are most concerned about surveillance tools that monitor large areas, like drones, or monitor biometric information, like facial recognition tools. They're more accepting of visible cameras used to monitor traffic or traffic stops but strongly dislike hidden systems that track or identify members of the public more generally.

Police body-worn cameras were the least threatening tech to respondents in our study. This acceptance is likely because the devices can increase law enforcement accountability. In fact, 93 percent of respondents believed that officers should be required to wear body cameras while on duty. According to the Atlas of Surveillance Project, more than 60 percent of law enforcement agencies currently use body-worn cameras.

Differences in opinion also appeared across demographics, with people of color showing greater distrust of police surveillance technology. Two-thirds of Black Americans see at least one of these tools as unsafe—a concern backed by history and flawed systems that risk embedding racial bias into new technologies. Studies have found that facial recognition tools struggle to identify people of color accurately, and AI trained on biased data can reinforce harmful stereotypes.

White adults were more likely to feel uneasy about firearm registries and traffic cameras. This could be because they are more likely to own guns or cars. Similarly, men were less comfortable than women with most police tech, which could be linked to the fact that men are three times more likely to be arrested than women.

Since people generally see the benefits of law enforcement technology, the best approach to policing might be to use only the least controversial tools. However, that’s unlikely. Law enforcement and private companies are already building integrated systems that combine cameras, government databases, social media tracking, facial recognition, predictive algorithms, and gunshot detectors.

This growing web of surveillance technology could become more like those used in authoritarian countries and could spark a major debate over constitutional rights.

Police Surveillance Tools and Civil Rights Concerns

Advanced surveillance strategies promise enhanced community safety but threaten constitutional protections. Numerous scholars, agencies, and advocacy groups warn that new police tech infringes on rights to assembly, speech, privacy, and due process while empowering unreasonable searches.

Even in times of sharp political division, such threats to core rights unify citizens. We found that 96 percent of Americans believe surveillance technology violates civil rights, and 68 percent feel that some tools “severely” infringe those liberties.

Facial recognition programs are considered the foremost threat – four out of five adults believe that the biometric tool violates civil rights, with more than a third perceiving the threat as severe. Networked home security cameras, surveillance drones, and predictive AI policing are considered grave dangers.

Regarding tech’s threat to civil liberties, people of color again showed more concern than whites. Men also worry more about infringements than women, and Republicans fretted most about the rights of those with guns (demonstrating heightened sensitivity about police body cams, firearm databases, and shot detectors).

In the face of such civil rights threats, will Americans take a principled privacy stand or collaborate with police security initiatives by sharing feeds of their private surveillance cameras?

Home Security Cameras: Should Police Have Access?

Many police departments are looking to link private security feeds with their surveillance networks to gather as much evidence as possible in case of crime. According to our home security system research, as many as 68 million homes have security cameras. In cases of crimes in and around homes, the footage on these devices is coveted by law enforcement programs.

As no warrant is required for voluntarily shared footage, police departments actively recruit consenting citizens and their cameras to the cause. Rather than merely requesting relevant footage following a crime, law enforcement agencies now promote online platforms and local ordinances granting live access to streaming devices.

Though one-third of Americans believe home security databases severely infringe civil liberties, 38 percent of camera owners would give law enforcement access to their private surveillance footage. Another 43 percent would be willing to do so, depending on the circumstances.

Americans crave both security and privacy, leading to contradictory stances. Maintaining this balance may become even more difficult as tech-driven surveillance methods advance.

Conclusion

Americans prize personal freedom and security, forcing difficult choices as technology strains the balance between those ideals. Nearly half of all homes now point cameras at strangers, yet two-thirds of adults believe certain types of surveillance tools severely infringe civil rights.

Still, citizens generally trust the police and seem ready to accept such tradeoffs. Law enforcement agencies maintain that integrated webs of cameras, databases, and algorithms will maximize community safety. Practices and precedents established now will reverberate as tech grows ever more invasive in the future. Transparency and oversight of police practices will be essential for preserving rights and security. Citizens also have a role to play and should carefully consider their participation in a potential surveillance state.

Our Data

In November 2024, SafeHome.org conducted an online survey of 2,045 American adults regarding their views on police surveillance technologies and their sentiment toward law enforcement. The results were weighted to reflect current nationwide demographics accurately for age, gender, ethnicity, and political affiliation. The raw pool of respondents was 51 percent female, 48 percent male, and 1 percent preferred not to identify gender. Participants self-identified ethnicity as 63 percent white, 12 percent black, 6 percent Asian, and 18 percent mixed/other, with 1 percent choosing not to provide racial information. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 95, with a median age of 47.