The whole theme of the George Orwell novel “1984” is “Big Brother Is Watching You.” Louisville cops are taking on the role of Big Brother, as you can see from the photo above (From Louisville Public Media):

Law enforcement across the U.S. are sifting through a Louisville Metro Police Department database of vehicles captured by the city’s growing fleet of license plate reader cameras.

The reason: Immigration enforcement.

In Louisville, the practice could also violate local law.

LMPD started paying for license plate reader cameras made by a company called Flock Safety beginning as early as 2021, according to records obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. The department refuses to say where the cameras are located. Officials tout the cameras as a tool to help find missing people and address other issues like stolen cars, street racing and violence.

Flock Safety lets law enforcement agencies share access to the data their cameras collect. Its national license plate reader network totals over 20 billion license plate “reads” per month across more than 5,000 communities.

Regular audits maintained by each police agency document every time their license plate reader data is searched, who does it and the reason given for the search. KyCIR obtained LMPD’s audits between March 2022 and July 2025.

In just the first half of 2025, LMPD’s Flock network was pinged about 1,700 times by officials from law enforcement agencies in more than a dozen states who listed immigration-related keywords as the reason for their searches. One LMPD officer conducted 150 of the searches, according to the data.

Louisville’s Democratic mayor is allowing this to happen. What’s the justification for saying that?

This summer, Mayor Craig Greenberg agreed to keep people locked up in the city jail for two more days beyond when they’re scheduled to be freed if federal agents claim they’re living here illegally and want to detain them. Greenberg faced a threatened lawsuit by the Trump administration and said he was trying to keep Louisville from becoming a target for mass immigration raids.

The mayor’s move chipped away at the city’s “separation ordinance” that limits LMPD’s cooperation with ICE, said Louisville Metro Council Member JP Lyninger, a District 6 Democrat. He also thinks LMPD’s deployment of the Flock license plate reader network runs afoul of that local law.

Since Greenberg wants to be a Republican with this action, it’s time to start looking for a new mayor.