“You can’t get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing, correct?” Columbine Valley Police Sgt. Jamie Milliman told Chrisanna Elser in September 2025 while issuing her a summons at her home in Colorado.

In the exchange, which was captured by Elser’s doorbell camera, Milliman accused her of stealing a package from a porch in the nearby town of Bow Mar.

Police had used Flock license plate readers to identify Elser’s green Rivian after the vehicle was caught driving through Bow Mar around the time of the theft. But the video of the porch theft, which Elser later found herself on Nextdoor, did not show the suspect ever getting into any car. It just showed a woman running off with a package.

“It became my job to prove my innocence,” Elser told CBS News. “And I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.”

Fortunately for Elser, her Rivian was equipped with multiple cameras and had recorded her route that day, helping prove she was not the thief. The charge was subsequently dropped.

In October 2026, Elser filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Flock Safety, the towns of Columbine Valley and Bow Mar, and two police officials, alleging that the surveillance and wrongful accusation violated her constitutional rights.

This is just one example of the many surveillance dragnets that government and law enforcement agencies use to collect information on people without them ever knowing it.

“You know it when you see it,” said Abigail Kunkler, counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), when asked to define a surveillance dragnet.

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