Chestnut Hill Realty is installing Flock license plate reader cameras along Independence Drive, on the border of South Brookline and West Roxbury, citing a rise in package and retail theft. However, the move has alarmed civil liberties advocates, who warn that the technology poses a greater threat than petty crime.

The ACLU of Massachusetts says the cameras — marketed as neighborhood safety tools — enable broad government surveillance by collecting data on everyone’s movements, not just those suspected of wrongdoing.

Kade Crockford, director of technology for the Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, says government agencies, in this case working with private companies, are building massive databases to track people’s movements across cities, states, and the nation.

“That raises

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