America is quietly being populated with Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems in towns, cities, and on highways. Most Americans drive by these devices daily unaware that they are being watched and recorded into a state database and probably a national database. The ALPR units are often very small and not easily detectable when mounted on electric poles and highway sign poles.
I work in a small city along the I-75 corridor which runs through six states from Florida and Michigan. I work in technology for a local company and know a few higher-ups in the local police department. One day I was inquiring about these new license plate readers and the officer was excited to tell me how they worked and where each of them was placed in town.
He explained that every vehicle that drives by these cameras takes a digital snapshot of the license plate number and the information about the vehicle such as if it’s a four-door, red, truck, sedan, Ford, Toyota, etc. Each snapshot reads the plate and state using character reading software and loads this data into a database. That data is then compared to a list of vehicles that are on a watch list for about any reason to be watched for. He went on to explain how fast this system responds as he tested it by entering his vehicle into the watch list. He then drove by a known camera to see if he would get a “hit” on his phone notification. It was explained the system is so fast that his phone pinged a hit within 10 seconds of driving past the camera.
I was told that any kind of parameters can be entered into the database search such as: “Be on the lookout for a red GM 2 door with a black roof, even without a plate number.” Whenever a car fitting the description of the search drives by, the camera the officer in charge of the database will get a hit that such a vehicle just drove by going in X direction on X street. He then dispatches an officer in the area to investigate the find to see if its a match.
I went looking for these cameras and found them to be quite small. They are mounted mostly on wood electrical poles. One camera on one side of the pole looking at oncoming traffic and one camera on the other side of the same pole looking at the traffic from the other direction. I found 12 of these cameras in our little town but I’m sure I missed a few more. They are usually mounted high on a pole looking down. They sometimes have a small solar panel to power them. A small box wired to each camera provides a cellular phone network connection, sending images to a cloud server somewhere.
My source went on to explain that each city might have a database and that they can make that data public to other agencies –which he said everyone does. So, if a crime is committed in a town elsewhere or in the state the police department can search the database for a vehicle description, or plate number, or a name associated with a plate number. Supposedly, the State Patrol is now using the same system with cameras on the highways and shares the same data as the cities. So, if Chief Wiggly in the city of Podunk is looking for a car that fits the description of one used in the robbery of the local donut shop, he can enter the data in his system and search for that car. If there is a hit on it within the database system, he calls the local police department that reported it for more information and possible apprehension.
He went on the explain that a police department in another town was looking for a murder suspect. That other department entered the license plate of the car and it showed up on his system. It seems the guy worked in this town and drove by a camera every day where they ended up finding him and his vehicle at a local employer where the person of interest was apprehended.
I questioned the longevity of these databases. How long do they retain these captures and was told “only two weeks” but in reality, I’m sure the data is being retained in other agencies much longer. I told him I don’t totally agree with how this system works and I believe it’s an invasion of privacy. He replied it would be no different than someone sitting on the roadside writing down every car that drove by on a piece of paper. In a sense he is right but the fact that this is so automated that our police departments have become keyboard cops.
This brings me to another fact that many towns now have cameras in most downtown areas which monitor and record every second of activity in the streets. Much like London where it is reported to have up to 900,000 cameras throughout the city. There are also cameras on traffic poles but after further investigation, it appears these are used for vehicle detection to operate traffic lights. Is America heading down the same path of 24/7 surveillance of its citizens? Are you aware of ALPR cameras in your city or adjoining highways? As I am now aware of many of these cameras, I try to avoid them, for the simple fact I don’t wish to be recorded into a database.
A web search will lead to several companies providing license plate reader technologies to local law enforcement. Another search of “legality of plate readers” gives a plethora of stories where many citizens and legal experts are arguing the legality of their use. I think this all goes back to awareness of your surroundings. Be aware of what is around you. I have nothing to hide, have never committed a crime, And I am an upstanding Christian citizen. But I don’t agree with my movements throughout a city being tracked and stored in a database.
I read that Washington, DC has used these systems since 2011. I’m sure that ALPR data was conveniently made available to whatever three-letter agency requested it on or after Jan. 6th, 2021.
Be thankful for your blessings. Stay Frosty, your head and on a swivel, and be aware of your surroundings.
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JWR Adds: It is noteworthy that ALPRs are now also mounted on many police and highway patrol cars.
There are just a patchwork of ALPR laws, across the country. Many states have no restrictions whatsoever.
Granted, ALPRs have solved some crimes. However, the civil rights violation implications of this technology are not yet fully appreciated. See, for example, this video: Privacy advocates worry that consumer license plate readers are creating a nosier neighborhood watch.
ALPRs are also used to automatically generate millions of road toll and bridge toll bills. In some jurisdictions, they are also used to automatically assess fines for running red lights or even parking violations.
The next logical step in the progression of ALPR surveillance is the addition of artificial intelligence (AI). This is AI-driven mass surveillance. AI could be used to analyze “what is wrong with this picture? — for EVERY passing vehicle. Say, for instance, that a certain New Jersey license plate number is associated with a White 2018 Nissan Sentra, but it shows up on a Blue 2020 Camry. That would register an “automobile theft”.
Presumably, in the quest for traffic ticket revenue, ALPR discrimination could be “cranked up” to trigger traffic stops or investigations on parked cars for all sorts of things: Dirty license plates, missing license plates, a car carrying a plate number that is no longer registered, or one that was never registered. And, alarmingly, the databases could even be used for polticized or “weaponized” policing, such as recording the license plate numbers of everyone parked at a political rally, or at a protest, or at a gun show. Running the ALPR data against registration databases could generate a list of who was likely an attendee. Again, the civil rights implications are alarming.
Databases are notorious for housing bad data. Bad data can lead to bad policing. Since ALPRs are often used to combat vehicle theft and kidnappings, ALPR “hits” are often considered “felony stops”, with plenty of itchy trigger fingers. There are countless cases of mistaken identification that have led to lots of “false felony” hits with misdirected high drama and some potentially tragic lethal force confrontations. See, for example:
- Families of Black girls wrongly held at gunpoint in Colorado sue police, city.
- San Francisco Woman Pulled Out of Car at Gunpoint Because of License Plate Reader Error.
- New Ninth Circuit Opinion Calls into Question Blind Reliance on License Plate Camera IDs.
- Error from license plate scanner leads to police stop that startles PV-based attorney.
- New York High Court Rejects License Plate Reader Stop.
- Deputies Sued After False ALPR Hit Leads To Guns-Out Traffic Stop Of California Privacy Activist.
- Seattle Police Department Pitches Dramatic Expansion of Vehicle Surveillance.
The days of “switching license plates” to avoid detection are just about gone, in America. That is mostly a good thing, at least for stopping car thefts. But mass surveillance tools like ALPRs, toll road transponders, and cellphone ping tracking have essentially destroyed our privacy and our anonymous freedom of movement.