Police would rather have the choice of pulling over the majority of drivers who are exceeding artificially low speed limits, because it makes police more necessary. Airport security personnel would rather have a reason to suspect a larger number of passengers, because it makes airport security personnel more necessary.

The problem is in the natural inclination of modern government to be an increasingly larger presence in every aspect of life. Not necessarily for the ulterior, conspiratorial reasons one would find metaphorically described in an Orwell novel. To put it simply: the more people who are suspects, the more people who need to be processed by the government, the larger, more powerful, and more expensive the government is.

Simply growing the supposed need- and thus the breadth- of government and law enforcement doesn't help catch more criminals or terrorists. The inefficiencies of size offset the benefits of the technology used. And, to boot, it only helps grow the irrational Big Brother fears of the masses.

You see, technology is not the bad guy here. Solid- even omnipresent- law enforcement technology is a predominantly advantageous thing, but only when used in conjunction with less liquid laws, and a slimmer and more efficient government.

In the end, there is no doubt about one point: sweeping increases in investigative and law enforcement technology are necessary to lock down the country from the new threat of terrorism. And they will happen. Thus, is it time to decide if such technology is going to enhance freedom or lessen it for law-abiding American citizens.