Law enforcement uses surveillance tech to watch No Kings protesters

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

October 18, 2025 12:51 PM EDT Updated 4 hours ago


Oct 18 (Reuters) - People who take part in Saturday's mass "No Kings" protest against President Donald Trump's administration may be targeted for federal government surveillance with a range of technology that could include facial recognition and phone hacking, civil libertarians said.

"No Kings" organizers expect 2,600 rallies across all 50 U.S. states. But the level of surveillance at protests and the type of technology in use is likely to be both location-specific and dependent on the police forces present, said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Friday. For instance, crowds in Washington, D.C., where anti-scale fencing has been erected around the White House complex, are likely to be surveilled differently than those in a small rural town.

"Under previous administrations, law enforcement surveillance of peaceful demonstrations was already commonplace and corrosive of free expression," Ryan Shapiro, executive director of government transparency group Property of the People, said in an email Friday. "Given Trump's open hostility to even minor dissent, such surveillance now poses an existential threat to what remains of American democracy and only underscores the need for mass protest."

One federal law enforcement agency, the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been implementing Trump's immigration crackdown and has amassed a digital surveillance arsenal, according to various news outlets. That includes facial recognition and phone hacking tools, opens new tab, as well as cell site simulators, opens new tab, which can allow for granular surveillance of protesters’ mobile phones, opens new tab. Multiple federal agencies have deployed social media monitoring, according to the Brennan Center.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/no-kings-protests-decry-trump-surveillance-worries-emerge-2025-10-18/

[2na fisherman]

1. Watched in San Diego

I noticed a drone flying over the No Kings crowd at low altitude and a hovering helicopter at a higher altitude. It may have been news assets or a hobbyist, but just because I'm not paranoid doesn't mean the Feds won't be surveilling us. The Trump regime will do anything to try to halt dissent.

[chia]

3. The helicopter I saw was NBC7, and there were a number of drones. No idea if they were private or law enforcement.

[bluestarone]

2. Well, i'm thinking this great technology, BUT

Using it on the WRONG people! Let's start using this on ICE!!

[slightlv]

4. Magas are the all-encompassing violent ones. Turn it on them!

[bluestarone]

6. For sure!!

[oberle]

5. Cops were flying a drone

over our large demonstration outside a senior facility. The also hung around in a menacing manor. But it's hard to intimidate seniors that all demonstrated in the 60s and 70s.

[The Wizard]

7. Squandered resources. Our tax dollars

are being looted from the treasury to fund Trump's efforts and impose his brown shirts on normal law abiding American citizens.