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Florida police are using Meta's creepy smart glasses [1]

['Séamus Bellamy']

Date: 2026-08-12  

Everyone's been so busy worrying and squawking about Flock that we completely missed the police discovering Meta's shifty-as-hell AI Smart glasses. However, thanks to Florida's Sunshine laws—which demand that everything the cops do on the record down there is available to the public—at least two law enforcement agencies in the state have started issuing the pervy peepers to police. When I read this, my hackles immediately went up: the aura surrounding Meta's face computer ain't great. While more police services employ body cams every year, the devices are very obvious. You know (and in some cases, hope) that you're being recorded. Meta's Ray-Bans? Not so much: a wee black sticker makes it damn near impossible to tell whether the glasses' camera is on or off. So I did a little digging. I did not expect that moving said dirt would make me feel any better, but here we are.

Over at Muckrock, you'll find a copy of a purchase order issued by the Broward's Sheriff's Office's Purchasing Manager. Give it a quick read, and you'll find nerd stuff and cop stuff: the Meta goggles, an earpiece, a 12-volt charger. It's the sort of stuff anyone looking to record content discreetly, on the go, would invest in. But, along with the hardware order, there's an indication of who the Meta glasses are intended for. Someone at the Sheriff's Office is involved in the ICAC: the Internet Crimes Against Children Program. They're local, state, and federal law enforcement folks who stand watch against monsters looking to groom kids online and peddle child abuse material over the Internet. Further, a code on the invoice, UC, indicates that the hardware was procured for deputies working undercover to snag pedos doing pedo things offline.

That's the problem with complex issues like surveillance in law enforcement. For every creepy cop using companies like Flock to stalk folks to their home, there's very likely 50 others using tech to keep watch or collect evidence on people who we'd very much want the legal system to get its mitts on. For the record, I'm against surveillance. As I've said before, there's no proof that it makes folks behave any better, and I'm not sure the benefits of having eyes everywhere are worth the overall invasion of our privacy. But using it to catch scum, preying on the most vulnerable in our society? It's difficult for me to argue against.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/08/12/florida-police-are-using-meta-s-creepy-smart-glasses.html

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