Paonia's Tech Surveillance Crisis

In a quiet Colorado town of just 1,500, a tech-driven surveillance experiment has sparked a firestorm of controversy. Robots mapped sidewalks last summer, then cameras watched every corner last fall — igniting fierce debates over privacy, civil rights, and who’s really in control. Town officials are fleeing the fallout: the administrator quit citing threats, the public works director stepped down, and a board member resigned — even a recall petition targets the mayor. Software engineer Pete McCarthy, a Silicon Valley transplant, has become the voice of resistance, exposing how cameras with facial recognition capabilities were secretly used to monitor employees and accessed hundreds of times by police. Despite initial denials, new leaders voted to remove the cameras — but McCarthy’s not done. Now, as the town turns to “smart meters” for water, he’s already sounding the alarm: this privacy battle is just beginning. Support the show:Get a discount at https://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/594f4bf1bcc062ed