A police officer uses the Flock Safety license plate reader system. Many left-leaning states and cities are trying to protect their residents' personal information amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, but a growing number of conservative lawmakers also want to curb the use of surveillance technologies. Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith told county supervisors that the Sheriff’s Office’s use of Flock traffic cameras complies with current constitutional protections, while acknowledging that broader tracking or future facial-recognition capabilities could raise different legal questions. Smith presented his office’s legal assessment to the Mohave County Board of Supervisors last week after members of the public raised questions about the cameras and their constitutionality with at least one supervisor. County Attorney Matt Smith got it right. The Board should quit treating license-plate cameras like a secret-police plot. These readers photograph license plates on public roads. That is not a bedroom or a phone in your pocket. It is a number the state already requires you to display. Smith’s office reviewed the law and said the Sheriff’s current use — no facial recognition, no round-the-clock tracking of regular drivers, and logged access for real investigations — meets the Constitution. That is the County Attorney’s job. He did it. Supervisor Gould’s “surveillance state” line sounds dictatorial until you read Smith’s limits: deputies are not watching every car, the system is not stalking people across the country, and the data is not a free-for-all. Courts have treated public-road license plate hits as legal. They have also said the analysis can change if government compiles long travel histories or adds face-ID. Smith said that out loud. That is an honest legal line, not a cover-up. Want accountability? Audit the logins. Punish misuse. Keep vendors from selling the data. Arizona already moved on third-party sharing. None of that requires