In 2019, the border town of Chula Vista, about 15 minutes from Tijuana, became California's first " Welcoming City," highlighting the city's financial and educational opportunities for immigrants. It's also one of the nation's most surveilled cities, where the police department uses license plate readers, drones, and body cameras to track residents and has explored facial-recognition technology. Now, those distinctions are clashing, as residents and activists accuse city leaders of "betraying" immigrant residents by permitting federal immigration authorities to access data from license plate readers. That's sparked a citywide movement questioning the city's police department, its surveillance apparatus, and its relationship with residents and immigration enforcement. Since 2015, the Chula Vista Police Department has quietly amassed surveillance tools as part of a smart city approach to policing.

Soon it will be impossible to cover up your face and hide your identity as you engage in a criminal activity, thanks to up-and-coming facial recognition technology. The bad news is, you won't be able to hide in plain view either, just to protect your privacy. As reported by the UK's Daily Mail, the technology under development has already progressed far enough to virtually "unmask" people in most situations. The Disguised Face Identification (DFI) system employs an AI network as it maps facial features hidden behind scarves, head gear, and even fake beards and mustaches to identify people. No doubt the system can be integrated with criminal databases so that flagging of wanted people can be done instantaneously; in fact, such systems already exist for automobiles.