Those license plate cameras hanging over highways and intersections are no longer just reading plates.

New technology now allows some of them to detect the electronic devices traveling with you: your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, infotainment system, AirTags, and even some pet trackers.

Collect enough data points, and it becomes possible to identify where someone works, where they live, and who they regularly travel with.

In other words, the goal is no longer simply to identify your car. It’s to identify you. And most drivers have no idea this capability already exists.

Easy reader

Most Americans are familiar with Automatic License Plate Readers. Police departments, toll authorities, and private companies have used them for years. They photograph license plates, log the time and location, and store that information in massive databases.

These systems were originally sold as tools to find stolen vehicles and assist in Amber Alerts. But the databases have grown enormously, storing billions of scans and increasingly being used for purposes far beyond their original mission. Civil liberties groups have been raising concerns about that expansion for years.

According to Flock Safety, one of the largest providers of these systems, its cameras capture multiple frames of video and use motion detection to identify vehicles. The company says it does not use facial recognition technology and that its cameras are not designed to identify individuals.

Yet that distinction is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

ALPR cameras use optical character recognition technology to convert license plate images into digital text and compare that information against databases of vehicles of interest. Increasingly, however, the cameras are doing much more than simply reading plates.

Electronic fingerprint

Now, here’s where things get serious.

A defense contractor called Leonardo has been promoting a system called SignalTrace. It turns license plate cameras into advanced vehicle-tracking technology by combining plate information with signals transmitted by nearby electronic devices.

Even if you never gave permission for anyone to access your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth devices, or your vehicle’s Wi-Fi system.

SignalTrace is essentially an add-on sensor that can be attached to existing license plate cameras. Instead of simply reading a plate, it searches for wireless signals coming from nearby devices: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, and other identifiers.

Drive past one of these systems and it may detect the electronic signatures coming from your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, infotainment system, AirTags, tire-pressure sensors, or other connected devices.

The system then links those electronic identifiers to a license plate. Leonardo calls this your “electronic fingerprint.”

In plain English, the goal is to connect vehicles with the electronic devices and people associated with them.

May the Fourth be with you

According to documentation referenced by multiple publications, SignalTrace isn’t limited to roadside cameras. The technology can also be deployed in parking garages, transportation hubs, event venues, and other public locations where wireless devices are present.

That means these systems can continue gathering information even when a vehicle isn’t the primary focus.

This raises two obvious questions.

First: Who controls the information about where you go and what devices you carry with you?

And second: How much of this surveillance is consistent with Americans’ expectations of privacy?

Privacy advocates argue that technologies like this raise serious Fourth Amendment concerns because they allow governments to collect detailed information about people’s movements and associations without individualized suspicion or a warrant.

Modern problems

That debate is only becoming more important as vehicles themselves become increasingly connected.

Modern cars already collect enormous amounts of information, including location data, driving behavior, route histories, voice commands, vehicle diagnostics, and in some cases information gathered through interior cameras and driver-monitoring systems.

Critics worry that systems like SignalTrace add yet another layer to an already expanding data ecosystem.

Most drivers don’t realize that they don’t fully control much of the information their vehicles generate. Manufacturers often determine who can access that data, whether it can be shared, and how long it is retained.

Now, layer SignalTrace on top of all that.

Not only can manufacturers collect information from connected vehicles, but external surveillance systems may now be able to detect the devices you bring into the car and tie those identifiers directly to your license plate.

Over time, that creates a remarkably detailed picture of your movements and routines.

RELATED: The latest ‘solution’ to reckless driving could limit freedom for all of us

United Archives/Getty Images

Pattern of life

Privacy experts often refer to this as “pattern of life” surveillance. Collect enough data points, and it becomes possible to identify where someone works, where they live, who they regularly travel with, and even sensitive locations they frequently visit.

Leonardo says the technology captures identifiers and frequencies, not the contents of calls or messages. That may be technically true. But once detailed information exists inside a database, history shows that its use often expands over time.

So what does this mean for ordinary drivers?

It means the privacy expectations many Americans still have on public roads may be changing quickly.

It means the data ecosystem surrounding your vehicle is becoming larger and more interconnected.

And it means lawmakers need to have serious conversations about who can collect this information, how long it can be stored, and what can be done with it.

I’m not saying every police department will abuse these capabilities tomorrow. But once the technology exists and the infrastructure is already in place, the temptation to use it more broadly becomes very real.

We’ve seen that happen with other surveillance tools.

Protect yourself

So what can you do right now?

First, familiarize yourself with your vehicle’s privacy and data settings. Many cars allow you to disable certain forms of data sharing or location tracking.Second, be mindful of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If you’re not using them, consider turning them off. These are precisely the types of signals systems like SignalTrace are designed to detect.Third, if you use AirTags, fitness trackers, or pet trackers, understand that those devices can also become part of your electronic footprint.Fourth, when you sell or trade your vehicle, factory-reset the infotainment system and remove all paired devices. Many people leave enormous amounts of personal information behind without realizing it.Finally, support serious data-privacy legislation and efforts to give consumers greater control over the information their vehicles generate.

Because technologies like this rarely arrive with a major announcement.

They appear quietly in police budgets, vendor contracts, and infrastructure projects.

And by the time most people notice, the system is already in place.

Bottom line: Your car is supposed to work for you, not the other way around. When surveillance systems start linking your license plate to the devices you carry every day, it’s worth paying attention — and asking some hard questions before these technologies become the new normal.

I’ll keep watching this space and bringing you updates as more departments adopt or test these systems. And I’ll let you know about the wins too.

If you’re wondering, “Where are all these cameras?” you will be shocked. Check out websites like deflock.org, an open-source project mapping license plate readers. Or look on eyesonflock.com, an aggregating Flock Safety Transparency Portal data, and haveibeenflocked.com, where you can enter your plate number to find out more.

​Airtags and trackers, Connected vehicles, Data control, Fourth amendment, License plate cameras, Privacy concerns, Surveillance systems, Electronic fingerprint, Tech, Flock cameras, Leonardo, Signaltrace, Automotive 

A new report from Punchbowl News has revealed new details about the recent hospitalization of longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Last month, news broke that McConnell was hospitalized on June 14. Spokesperson David Popp released a statement that day that said little more than that the senator had been “admitted to the hospital” and that he was “receiving excellent care.”

The dispatcher requests ‘ALS’ services, which Thompson said referred to ‘Advanced Life Support.’

No updates have been released in the weeks since. However, a Punchbowl News report released Wednesday revealed that McConnell was “unconscious” when first responders were sent to his home in Washington, D.C.

The report cited an emergency dispatch recording shared on X by D.C. journalist Desirée Thompson. Thompson claimed the recording came from “Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS dispatch.”

On the recording, the dispatcher requests “ALS” services, which Thompson said referred to “Advanced Life Support.” The dispatcher also notes that the emergency relates to someone who is “unconscious.”

Blaze News reached out to McConnell’s office to confirm that the senator had been unconscious at the time and to learn the current status of his condition and whether he has been discharged from the hospital. The office did not respond.

RELATED: Longtime GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell hospitalized

Photo dated June 1, 2026, featuring Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Justice of West Virginia; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Punchbowl News reported that multiple senators, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), have claimed to have spoken with McConnell. Thune said the day after McConnell’s hospitalization that McConnell remained “dialed in to what’s going on” in the Senate.

Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News about whether he has been in touch with McConnell since that time.

McConnell’s health has been the subject of concern for years. The 84-year-old has apparently frozen up, tripped, fallen down stairs, and used a wheelchair on multiple occasions, including in early June. Back in February, he checked himself in to a hospital after experiencing “flu-like symptoms.”

About 10 days before his latest hospitalization, a noticeably frail-looking McConnell required assistance from two men as he made his way through the U.S. Capitol to vote on a reconciliation bill, a photo showed. His most recent message on X was posted on June 12.

McConnell announced in early 2025 that he would not seek another term.

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​Mitch mcconnell, Kentucky, Politics 

The Supreme Court’s decision in the birthright citizenship case cannot be sugarcoated: It is a disaster.

Illegal immigration drives many of the problems that afflict the nation — cultural decline, political brinkmanship, the rise of socialist and communist policies, social fragmentation, strained schools and hospitals, and damage to the job market, to name only a few.

Getting back on track requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus resources on targets and operations that can yield large numbers of removals.

But birthright citizenship adds a uniquely destructive incentive. It rewards illegal immigration itself by bestowing sacred American citizenship on the children of people who should not be here in the first place.

Birthright citizenship creates a multiplier effect. It turns one act of illegality into a generational claim on the country. To put it in terms some of my more interventionist friends may understand, the proponents of illegal immigration have secured state-sanctioned weapons of mass reproduction.

Even after this setback, much can be done to mitigate the damage. Fortunately, the solution is not only politically viable; it was promised.

The solution is mass deportation, now with a particular focus on illegal aliens who are expectant parents or already have children.

The Supreme Court’s ruling does nothing to grant amnesty to the parents of would-be citizens if those parents are here illegally. Deporting expectant parents shuts off birthright citizenship before it happens.

For illegal aliens who already have children with ill-gotten birthright citizenship, the parents should be deported with their illegal-alien family unit. They can choose to abandon their children in the United States, which would be a condemnable moral failure, or take their children with them.

To make things easier, the Oversight Project has already put together the “Keeping Families Together Plan: How to Deport After the Birthright Citizenship Case.”

The administration remains far off target on fulfilling its mass-deportation agenda. The numbers are not there. Getting back on track requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus resources on targets and operations that can yield large numbers of removals.

That means high-density enforcement.

Worksite enforcement against illegal labor operations at Republican-protected sanctuary farms, factories, and industrial hubs would produce large numbers of arrests and deportations. Enforcement at high-density physical locations obviously yields more results than chasing one alien at a time.

This is not happening at the necessary scale because the special-interest lobby supporting these industries is a major financial backer of the Republican Party.

But as far as I know, no special-interest lobby for the parents of anchor babies funds Republican elections. I have been surprised before, but this should be an easier political fight.

RELATED: 1776, not 1608: What the Supreme Court got wrong on birthright citizenship

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

It has been difficult to persuade the Trump administration to turn fully toward worksite enforcement. Perhaps the outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision can now be channeled into concrete action to mitigate the damage.

If the court had ruled the other way, presumably these removals would already be happening. If birthright citizenship for illegal aliens is truly the civilizational threat its critics claim it is, then the Trump administration must use every available tool to address it even under this now seemingly permanent constitutional framework.

Other steps will be necessary to address birthright citizenship gained through means other than crossing the border illegally. Temporary visitors and birth tourism should be targeted. So should more exotic abuses, such as a communist Chinese billionaire allegedly mailing sperm to California to impregnate women and produce American-citizen children for him.

There is no shortage of mitigating measures available: tightening rules for temporary visitors, banning birth tourism, and perhaps even banning the use of the mail system for communist Chinese sperm.

For those here illegally, the answer is more straightforward.

The Trump administration should fall back in love with its signature campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.

Illegal aliens cannot have anchor babies here if they are deported first.

The solution is sitting right in front of us.

Mass deportation.

​Birthright citizenship, Scotus, Supreme court, Trump, 14h amendment, Amnesty, Oversight project, Mass deportation, Visas, Opinion & analysis 

President Donald Trump spoke candidly about his rallies that used the hit “Y.M.C.A.” song after the death of one of the Village People.

Trump said the song became a big hit once again after he started using it, which began during his 2020 presidential campaign.

‘There’s nothing gay about that.’

Campaign stops and anti-lockdown protests that featured the “Y.M.C.A.” song — as the president did his signature dance — made the Village People’s hit synonymous with Trump rallies.

On Tuesday morning, just one day before his 75th birthday, Village People co-founder and Texas native Victor Willis passed away.

“It is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband, VICTOR WILLIS,” wife Karen Huff-Willis wrote on Facebook, per CBS News.

Willis’ wife described his death as the result of “a short, but aggressive illness” and requested privacy.

Trump was quick to offer his condolences early in the morning on Wednesday, taking to Truth Social to post kind words about the disco singer.

“He was a great and happy guy who loved that I used his groups song, YMCA, at my Rallies,” Trump wrote. “It became a ‘monster’ hit, again, 30 years after its original launch. Many singers and groups wanted to get on board at the Rallies after all of the Rally Attendance Records were set – The crowds were, and are, enormous – But Victor and the group was there for us right from the beginning!”

RELATED: How an NYC socialite’s riches preserve America’s beautiful, bustling past

Gari Garaialde/Redferns

Willis described in late 2024 how financially beneficial the re-emergence of the song had been, saying on his social media page that the boost from Trump had “been great.”

“Y.M.C.A. is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President Elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of Y.M.C.A. And I thank him for choosing to use my song,” Willis wrote.

Trump continued on Wednesday, saying of the Village People, “They loved the action, and we loved them and their great and uplifting song.”

The president concluded, “We will think of Victor every time YMCA is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week. My condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed.”

RELATED: ‘They’re animals’: Trump UNLOADS on ‘godless Communists’ taking over the Democratic Party

While it has been widely assumed “Y.M.C.A.” is about gay men and has been colloquially referred to as the gay national anthem, Willis denied this and said the song was simply about hanging out with friends.

Particularly, Willis stated the line “You can hang out with all the boys” was “simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.”

Three Village People albums went platinum in the U.S.: “Macho Man,” “Cruisin’,” and “Go West.”

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​Politics, Trump, Ymca, News 

While three major socialist victories occurred in New York City this month, the rise of this anti-American movement is not confined to New York — and could spread across the country if left unchecked.

“They’re extremists. They’re so dangerous to our country. How did they do it?” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler begins on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

However, Wheeler points out that there is good news — they “can be stopped.”

“It doesn’t necessarily require the cooperation of the do-nothing Republicans in the United States Congress. President Trump can take action himself,” she says.

Wheeler explains that first, Trump “must defund” any college or university that “indoctrinates youth in anti-American ideology.”

“Even private schools, by the way, this doesn’t just apply to state schools. Even private schools accept federally subsidized student loans and research grants from the federal government. Cut it all,” she says.

“The second thing that we need to do is we need to prosecute individuals who indoctrinate kids with communism,” she continues.

“Some people are going to accuse me of wanting McCarthyism 2.0. Yeah, that sounds like a good start. Prosecute them,” she adds.

The third thing Trump can do to stop the wave of Marxists infiltrating the U.S. government is to report those individuals who celebrate tragedies like the murder of Charlie Kirk.

“Tell their parents, report them to their school, to their employer. Make that follow them in our society. It’s not cancel culture. It’s self-defense,” Wheeler says.

“And the fourth thing, infiltrate the radical terrorist groups that are such a looming threat to our country. We just learned … that the ring leader who plotted the mass terror attack that was, thank goodness, thwarted against UFC Freedom 250 at the White House, was an illegal alien,” she explains.

“Infiltrate the radical terrorist groups, the radical trans terrorist groups, specifically the BLM, racial Marxist groups, Antifa, Soros, Roy Singham-funded groups, and break them up because they are the enforcement arm of the ideology embraced by this terrible trio,” she continues.

The fifth thing, Wheeler explains, is that K-12 public schools should have a pro-American, pro-Western civilization, and pro-Christian curriculum.

“So that these children are not vulnerable to the indoctrination of university, so that they’re not prepped and primed and halfway indoctrinated by the time they even get there,” Wheeler says.

“I make this list because it’s important that we understand how this was done in New York City … and that it is a significant threat not just in New York but in cities and states all across the country,” she adds.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Liz wheeler, Democrats, Communism, Mccarthyism, Socialism, Donald trump, Marxism, The liz wheeler show, Conservatives, Zohran mamdani 

The 2024 U.K. general election surprised a lot of people, not least the Labour Party itself.

Sir Keir Starmer did not so much come to power with a mandate from the electorate as benefit from Britain’s absurd first-past-the-post voting system. Labour secured a massive 174-seat majority on just 33.7% of the vote.

Apparently, a 16-year-old is wise enough to choose the next government, but a 15-and-a-half-year-old is too fragile to look at a meme on X without state intervention.

This “loveless landslide,” as it has been called, happened because everyone was fed up with the Conservatives pretending to be conservative while presiding over record immigration and historically high taxes, while the emerging Reform Party split the vote on the right.

Look back in anger

Brits tend to vote tactically. Voting in this country is about getting rid of someone you hate or voting for someone you hate a bit less to prevent someone you hate a lot more from gaining power.

When he stood on the steps of Downing Street almost two years ago, Starmer declared that the country had voted for “change.” And change the country he did. To paraphrase Churchill, never in the field of politics have so few done so much to make life worse for so many. The prime minister and his Cabinet of credentialed ideological clones immediately set about dismantling the British state. We went from 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule to managed decline overseen by a man so dull he had to beg his shadow to follow him.

Admittedly, he did unite the country — against him.

Within the space of two years, Starmer’s blend of technocratic managerialism and authoritarian overreach had alienated and enraged just about everyone. He was so unpopular that he was even hated by people who didn’t know he existed; people heard the name or saw his face and seemed ready to spontaneously combust with rage.

Ultimately, he did the right thing and resigned on June 22. Ironically, it was only during his resignation speech that he actually showed some genuine human emotion. When his successor, generally considered to be Andy Burnham, takes up the role — the seventh PM in a decade — the revolving door of people fighting for the front seat of a clown car continues.

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Starmer’s final, desperate attempt to manufacture a legacy before leaving Number 10 was his sweeping social media ban for under-16s. Not content with alienating a generation of working-class voters, he apparently wanted to ensure that the youngest demographic would grow up hating Labour as well.

Just two years ago, Starmer resisted calls to ban children from having smartphones and using social media. So the about-face is nothing new to a man who has changed his mind on dozens of government policies. The former prime minister has made so many U-turns that the clown car is doing donuts at the circus.

According to statements he made during his Downing Street press conference, Starmer took a more draconian approach after meeting with bereaved parents and after evaluating evidence from Australia, which became the first Western country to ban children from social media in December 2025. From early next year, the age limit will be raised from 13 to 16 on platforms including Snapchat, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Naturally, children were positively overwhelmed with joy by the news that the state was going to become their new moral guardian. When the BBC visited a school to gauge the reaction of under-16s to being kicked off “the socials,” they spoke to a few who agreed with the ban, but they also met a teenager named Isabella. After she revealed that her weekend screen time was nine hours, the reporter asked what she would do with all that sudden time.

In classic British fashion, she deadpanned straight to camera: “Stare at a wall.”

It was a wonderfully sarcastic, meme-ready response that instantly went viral.

RELATED: Britain is paying the price for years of woke ideology

JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

‘Sheer hypocrisy’

If Andy Burnham becomes prime minister and proceeds to enforce this ban, he will inherit a generation of young people whose first political memory is of a government that exists largely to take things away.

The sheer hypocrisy of the policy is staggering. This is, after all, the exact same Keir Starmer who championed lowering the voting age to 16, solemnly declaring that young people were mature enough to help decide the future of the United Kingdom. Apparently, a 16-year-old is wise enough to choose the next government, but a 15-and-a-half-year-old is too fragile to look at a meme on X without state intervention.

No thought has been put into this ban. The legislation excludes WhatsApp and Signal — so the state’s big-brained solution to online safety prevents a teenager from posting a photo of his friends on a public feed, yet happily lets him participate in group chats with hundreds of peers, swapping the exact same content totally off the regulatory radar.

Besides, kids are not as stupid as we think; they are light-years ahead of tech regulation. Recently a study commissioned by online safety charity the Molly Rose Foundation exposed the reality of these policies. The study — the first to examine teen social media use under a blanket ban — found that 61% of Australian 12- to 15-year-olds who previously had accounts still maintained access to at least one platform.

Don’t get me wrong: Social media is a sewer, overrun with self-righteous liberals and narcissistic attention-seekers posting slop, but it’s an easy target for policymakers. Not everything is the fault of social media. This is a moral panic, a headline-grabbing stunt parading as child protection. Social media platforms, like video games before them and horror movies before that, have simply become the latest scapegoat for wider social problems.

I sympathize deeply with the frustration and anguish felt both by teachers and grieving parents, but child-rearing should not be outsourced to the state any more than the government should declare a national bedtime. It’s a parent’s responsibility to bring up children, not the state’s. If Labour thinks Parliament can legislate a tech-savvy generation into staring at a wall, lawmakers are about to find out exactly how tactical the next electorate can be.

​Andy burnham, Keir starmer, Labour party, Nanny state, United kingdom, Voting age, Lifestyle, Social media ban, Letter from the uk