“The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.” -Rita Mae Brown

I was inspired to write about group conformity’s power based on recent and not-so-recent observations. After all, groupthink is the most potent force in politics. It even cost Jesus Christ his life.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. “Crucify him!” they shouted. “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.” – Mark 15:9-15

We see and experience social group conformity pressures all the time and, in many instances, in our everyday lives without even knowing it. Think back to the days of Covid. The power of groupthink took over our economy and way of life. Family members were at odds with each other, businesses under threat of imprisonment were forced to close, and cities and towns, one by one, adopted the social narrative. I mean, who would want to be guilty of murdering grandma? Just put a mask on, says the crowd. President Joe Biden described it best when he said, “We choose truth over facts,” but which truth do we choose? Regardless of your position on Covid mitigation strategies, the point is many of us succumb to social pressure groups, and that’s not a good thing.

I recently attended a Camden County Commission meeting where social pressure was front and center. The meeting was billed to solicit community and law enforcement input about the controversial use of Static License Plate Readers (LPRs) and a possible ban or restriction. There were 13 law enforcement members from Camden County, neighboring counties, and the Chief of Police from Jefferson City. A mostly packed room of community members also attended. Based on a display of hands, most of the room seemed opposed to using LPRs. A couple of folks I spoke with after the meeting would like LPRs implemented but chose to refrain from speaking against their neighbors; why? You guessed it, social pressure. I also observed the force of social pressure on our law enforcement officers. They argued that neighboring communities are using this technology, so what’s the harm? Why should Camden County be left out of the group? Citizen concerns ranged from surveillance to potential abuses of data. Law enforcement concerns hinged on the extreme hypothetical crimes of “what about a kidnapped child?’ The kidnapped child argument has been used during the buildup of this meeting by community members and law enforcement for several days. I argue this is either a deceptive argument or an irrational one. I’m not assigning any negative motives to anyone, but the extreme hypothetical crime argument has been mastered in our public dialogue as a kind of shock and awe factor. It shuts down rational debate because those who may disagree with surveillance are overwhelmed with the thought of a kidnapped child. Of course, this technique is designed to do just that: end the debate. The Chief of Police from Jefferson City made a much better argument. He argued that law enforcement is facing staffing shortages. This is something no one can deny. He argued that using LPR devices can fill in the gaps for law enforcement. His argument is much more thoughtful than the use of scare tactics, in my opinion.

The real elephant in the room was danced around all evening but never fully confronted, except, of course, by Nathan Rinne. Nathan believes the Sheriff’s Office will abuse this technology. He deeply mistrusts Camden County due to a highly controversial, probably illegal search warrant that obtained his social media data. This data includes everyone he has ever spoken to, even private conversations which are no longer private. It has yet to be fully determined the extent of who knew what and who authorized what regarding this controversial search warrant. Essentially, it was surveillance on Nathan, so you can see why he would oppose the use of any further surveillance. Another person came close when they said something like this. It’s not that we don’t trust our local law enforcement. We just don’t trust the next guy. This seems like a purposeful avoidance. The data on these LPR devices is erased after a 30-day retention period unless an entity requests otherwise or is given a notice of preservation. LPR data can be tailored to meet the needs of a given department according to the technology presenter at the meeting. So, there is minimal risk of the future bad apple cop abusing your current data. The real question is whether we, the community, trust our local Sheriff with this technology. It seems evident that several community members do not. Otherwise, the implementation of this system would be a fait accompli. If the citizens trusted their local government, there would be little concern about law enforcement abusing its technology tools. If the government trusted the citizens, there would be little need for broad surveillance. The mistrust of law enforcement by citizens and the mistrust of citizens by law enforcement has never been greater. This is a clue that something has gone terribly wrong, and serious reforms must occur soon. Communities need effective and responsible law enforcement, or society will slide into the abyss. The Sheriff’s Office needs community support. Without it, they face an impossible uphill battle.

At the end of the meeting, nothing monumental happened. The Commission stammered around, trying to find the correct language for a motion to vote on before settling on a move to table the issue, primarily due to the social conformity pressures in the room. The competing beliefs of resisting the surveillance state vs. the need for societal security remain unflappable, as do the mistrust and social pressures placed on us all.

Here is a video of the Asch Psychology Experiment, which illustrates the enormous power of groupthink and the potential for great danger to our society.