By Jeffrey Phaup
Automatic license plate readers are now being marketed to private parties. One example is a company called Flock Safety, which provides such plate readers to homeowners associations with the promise that they will provide peace of mind to residents, even if they already have nothing to be worried about.[1] The cameras give residents access to a wealth of plate and location data that is often shared with local law enforcement.[2]
Flock’s “safety-as-a-service” packages cost $2,500 a year per camera, with the scanners promoted for their crime-fighting powers.[3] The systems initially deployed mostly in gated communities, but recently the systems have now spread to practically all types of neighborhoods across the United States.[4] Flock Safety systems have been installed in more than 1,400 cities across 40 states and capture data from more than a billion cars and trucks each month.[5]
Photos captured by the scanners are placed in a neighborhood’s private Flock database and are made available for homeowners to search and scrutinize.[6] Machine-learning software categorizes each vehicle based on two dozen attributes, including its color, make and model; what state its plates came from; and whether it had bumper stickers or a roof rack.[7] Each scanned vehicle is then pinpointed on a map and is tracked based on how frequently it is scanned by the system.[8] Vehicle plates are compared to law enforcement records in order to check for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives.[9]
Flock cameras were installed in Dayton, Ohio, as part of a months-long trial for the local police, with a disproportionate number of the cameras placed in the heart of the city’s Latino community.[10] One camera was even placed outside a church where local immigrant families gathered and attended Mass.[11] These cameras were eventually removed after the community targeted by the surveillance complained.[12]
License plate scanners track individuals’ comings and goings with the data can showing both common and unique travel patterns; and because license plates are required by law, there is no obvious way to effectively remain anonymous.[13] Vendors of license plate scanners market their products using the idea that surveillance will reduce crime by either advertising the presence of surveillance in hopes it will be a deterrent or by using the technology to secure convictions of people that have allegedly committed crimes.[14] However, despite what vendors claim, there is no empirical evidence that shows the scanners actually reduce crime.[15]
[1] See generally Tim Cushing, The Newest Growth Market For License Plate Readers Is Those Assholes Running The Local Homeowners Association, TechDirt (July 26, 2021), https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190724/17315042647/newest-growth-market-license-plate-readers-is-those-assholes-running-local-homeowners-association.shtml [https://perma.cc/6KFC-F5JJ].
[2] See generally Drew Harwell, License plate scanners were supposed to bring peace of mind. Instead they tore the neighborhood apart., Washington Post (Oct. 22, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/22/crime-suburbs-license-plate-readers/ [https://perma.cc/LHP5-FTE4].
[3] See generally Introducing a better way to defeat crime., Flock Safety (last visited Oct, 22, 2021) https://www.flocksafety.com/ [https://perma.cc/H666-4MYY].
[4] Harwell, supra note 2.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] See generally Jason Kelly & Matthew Guariglia, Things to Know Before Your Neighborhood Installs an Automated License Plate Reader, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Sept. 14, 2021), https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/09/flock-license-plate-reader-homeowners-association-safe-problems [https://perma.cc/QU7B-YZUB].
[8] Hartwell, supra note 2.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Kelly & Guariglia, supra note 7.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.