Shifting Landscapes: Regulatory Challenges Stemming from Emerging Technologies

By Jordan Ferguson*

I. INTRODUCTION

In the modern era, the world moves fast—aided by technology that is constantly evolving and changing our relationships with each other and with the world around us. Technological developments challenge state and local agencies and policymakers in many ways, including how they balance use of these new tools against regulating them to ensure they do not create new problems that outweigh their benefits.

Emerging technologies in all their various forms, from those that create the sharing marketplace to those that enhance law enforcement, generate dynamic and ever-shifting issues for state and local agencies hoping to implement and integrate them. The focus now for state and local agencies must be on clarifying the issues these technologies present, and finding solutions for their appropriate regulation and implementation consistent with the public good. By looking at Transportation Network Companies, Online Property Rental Marketplaces, Mealsharing, Body Worn Cameras, and Automated License Plate Readers, these issues and their implications may be seen with greater clarity.