Latest news with #ALPRs
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Big Brother is watching you — but this homeowner made him back down
Last month, Charlie Wolf attended a meeting of the Greers Ferry, Ark., city council to complain about a license-plate camera that he said was violating the Fourth Amendment by regularly taking pictures of his driveway and front yard. Greers Ferry Police Chief Kallen Lacy acknowledged Wolf's 'distress' but rejected his legal analysis, saying 'over 5,000 cities' across the country use such cameras, 'so there is no constitutional violation there.' Despite Lacy's assurance, the widespread acceptance of automated license-plate readers as a crime-fighting tool only magnifies the privacy concerns they raise. They enable routine surveillance of a sort that would have troubled the Fourth Amendment's framers. 'Unlike red-light cameras or speed cameras that are triggered by specific violations,' the Institute for Justice notes, ALPRs 'photograph every vehicle that drives by and can use artificial intelligence to create a profile with identifying information that then gets stored in a massive database. 'Once that happens, officials can search the database for any vehicle they wish, all without a warrant.' Worse, 'departments around the country are automatically sharing data with each other, making it simple for police anywhere to track drivers' movements. 'All of this arbitrary discretion threatens people's privacy, security and freedom of movement by creating an atmosphere where everyone knows they are being watched and tracked whenever they hit the road.' Wolf's experience crystallizes these concerns. As he noted at the city council meeting, the camera that was installed across the street from his house on May 13 was photographing 'our yard, curtilage and vehicles' whenever a car passed by. 'We're being photographed and entered into a database without consent or violation of any law,' Wolf said. The camera captured images of Wolf and his wife whenever they left their home or returned to it. The camera also documented the comings and goings of the Wolfs' visitors, including their friends, children and grandchildren. Depending on the vagaries of traffic, it might record trips to the mailbox, kids playing in the yard or anything else happening in front of the house. Local officials initially were unfazed by the Wolfs' complaints, insisting that the camera, one of five installed in the tiny town under a contract with the ALPR company Flock Safety, would stay where it was. But they reconsidered after receiving a letter from Institute for Justice attorney Joshua Windham, who explained why the couple's objections deserved more respect than they had received. In 2018, Windham noted, the Supreme Court held that the FBI violated the Fourth Amendment when it collected cellphone location data without a warrant supported by probable cause. That ruling, he explained, was based on the principle that the Fourth Amendment 'must preserve at least as much privacy as Americans would have enjoyed when it was adopted.' Back then, Windham observed, 'police lacked the means to create a historical record of people's physical movements' because 'they simply did not have the manpower or the technology to do so.' He noted that a federal judge in Iowa and two state supreme courts have recognized that 'the placement of a surveillance camera in front of a home,' like tracking someone's movements via cellphone data, 'may violate a reasonable privacy expectation.' Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters The morning after Windham sent that letter, Greers Ferry officials posted a defense of ALPRs that read like a Flock press release. But by the end of the month, they had agreed to remove the camera that was spying on the Wolfs. That small victory for privacy was followed a week later by another encouraging development: Scarsdale, NY, terminated its ALPR contract with Flock Safety after more than 400 residents signed a petition expressing concern about 'the broad and lasting implications of deploying such a surveillance system.' The official rationale for the town's decision was lack of funding. But the criticism provoked by the project suggests Americans are beginning to recognize the perils of surrendering their privacy in the name of public safety. Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.
CBS News
24-07-2025
- CBS News
When license plate readers get it wrong
In 2018, Brian Hofer and his younger brother were driving to visit their parents for Thanksgiving. It should have been a routine trip. But that evening they found themselves held at gunpoint by a group of law enforcement officers. The incident was the result of technology gone wrong. Hofer's vehicle had been flagged as stolen by an Automated License Plate Reader — ALPR — system. When he drove by, the reader alerted authorities. "Your life definitely is different after you have guns pointed at you," he said. This incident is one of over a dozen cases verified by CBS News during a six-month investigation into incidents of wrongful stops and even several instances of ALPR technology being abused. The consequences of ALPR errors can range from the inconvenient — such as mistaken toll booth charges — to the potentially dangerous, such as Hofer's armed detainment. In some instances the technology was improperly used by authorities, such as in Kansas, where law enforcement officers used license plate reader systems to stalk former partners in two separate incidents. In use since at least the late 1990s, automated license plate reader systems have advanced quickly in recent years. They now marry high-speed, high-resolution cameras with artificial intelligence to scan every license plate passing through a designated field of vision. The data is then compared against license plate numbers in databases. Thousands of agencies use these systems daily to scan plates in real time and identify potential matches. Departments use ALPRs as a crime-fighting tool to gather evidence for investigations and reduce crime as well as for traffic compliance. According to a survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, every police department overseeing more than one million citizens reported using the technology, as did 90% of sheriff's offices with 500 or more sworn deputies. Law enforcement officials told CBS News that the technology has allowed them to do their job more efficiently and has helped solve crimes ranging from stolen vehicles to missing persons cases. Pat Yoes, the national president of The National Fraternal Order of Police, an organization of hundreds of thousands of sworn law enforcement officers, said in an emailed statement to CBS News that ALPRs are "extraordinarily important in cases where there is an immediate threat to life or safety, as in an abduction or an armed threat driving to a target," adding that the information can be valuable in generating leads and closing cases. He said transparency is key. "The community should be made aware of the new technology, how it's used in the field, how it contributes to public safety, and how it addresses any privacy concerns," he said in the statement. "Technology like ALPRs is a valuable tool for many law enforcement agencies to make their communities safer." The rise of ALPR systems comes as law enforcement agencies across the country face staffing and recruiting challenges. A 2024 survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a professional association, found that U.S. agencies are operating at a nearly 10% staffing deficit. ALPR technology is one way to help fill this gap in manpower. License plate reader errors may occur for a variety of reasons. In some cases, letters or numbers are interpreted incorrectly by the Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, software. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, common issues including glare or misaligned cameras could impact accuracy. CBS News found that mistakes are often due to a mix of machine and human or administrative errors. In Española, New Mexico, a 12-year-old was handcuffed after an ALPR camera misread the last number of a license plate on a vehicle driven by her older sister as a '7' instead of the '2' it actually ended with, according to a lawsuit filed against the city. A month later, in a separate incident, a 17-year-old honors student was held at gunpoint in Española on his way home from school after officers mistook his vehicle for one associated with an individual who was being sought in connection with a string of armed robberies. In Aurora, Colorado, in 2020, a mother and her family, including her 6-year-old daughter, were pulled over at gunpoint and forced to lie face down on hot pavement. Again, ALPR technology was central to the stop. Police mistakenly flagged their Colorado license plate as matching that of a completely different vehicle from a different state — a stolen motorcycle registered in Montana. The incident, captured on video and widely condemned, led to a $1.9 million settlement from the city in 2024. The ACLU warns ALPR cameras could infringe on civil rights and violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment by encouraging unreasonable searches. Despite widespread use, there is no federal legislative framework for ALPR use. Hofer, who has been involved in privacy advocacy for over a decade, is now the executive director of Secure Justice, an organization that aims to reduce government and corporate overreach. He says manual verification is necessary to see whether ALPR "hits," or matches, are accurate. Even so, he said, such checks are insufficient because data errors could cause a plate to "match" an incorrect entry in a database. "There are billions of scans a day in America. If there's even just a 10% error rate, that means there are so many opportunities for abuse to happen," Hofer said. Some concerned citizens are taking action. Last year, residents of Norfolk, Virginia, filed a federal lawsuit against the city, and in Illinois, two residents have sued the Illinois State Police over ALPR systems, arguing that their use violates Fourth Amendment rights. The latter case was dismissed without prejudice in Denault contributed to this report.
Axios
09-07-2025
- Axios
Richmond police ban feds from tracking immigrants' license plate data
A federal agency was using Richmond's license plate reader system for immigration enforcement, the city's police department announced this week. Why it matters: RPD has permanently blocked all federal agencies from being able to do so, saying the action violates department policy. Catch up quick: Police said Tuesday that they learned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been improperly accessing the automatic license plate reader data from its provider, Flock Safety, for months. RPD had granted ATF access to the data to assist with its investigations in February, a month before the federal agency got involved with immigration enforcement. Police say they found out in June that ATF agents had been making immigration-related searches in the system since March. Then RPD cut them off. What they're saying: "If ATF had formally requested access for that purpose, I would have denied it," Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards said in a statement. Edwards has previously said RPD wouldn't work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to make arrests, citing a need to maintain community trust. The other side: ATF officials said in a statement that they "regret that this situation occurred" and added that the searches "were related to criminal activity, not civil immigration enforcement." The big picture: The latest incident is part of a broader pattern happening across Virginia, where advocates are scrutinizing how data from Flock Safety's automatic license plate readers (ALPR) has been used for immigration surveillance. By the numbers: A WHRO investigation found dozens of immigration-related searches across five counties, including Chesterfield, using ALPRs from June 2024 to April 2025. Richmond and Henrico have a combined 184 Flock cameras, which is among the most in the state, per WHRO. What we're watching: A new Virginia law, effective July 1, says law enforcement can use ALPR data only for in-state criminal investigations.
Associated Press
16-06-2025
- Associated Press
Top Omaha Drug Lawyer Spotlights Alarming Warrantless Surveillance On I-80 After Drug Possession Bust
Omaha, NE Criminal Defense Lawyer Exposes Dangerous Warrantless Surveillance On I-80 Revealed After 30-Pound Carfentanil Drug Bust 'If a cop can run your plate through a national network and see your movements without a warrant, that's a dangerous precedent. It doesn't just affect suspected drug traffickers. It affects everyone.'— Criminal Defense Attorney Daniel Stockmann OMAHA, NE, UNITED STATES, June 16, 2025 / / -- After the recent seizure in Omaha, NE of 30 pounds of carfentanil, a synthetic opioid estimated to be 100 times stronger than fentanyl, Omaha-based drug charges lawyer, Daniel Stockmann, is sounding the alarm about the basis on which this arrest may have been made. While officials are touting the bust as a major success, Stockmann is urging the public to pay closer attention to the surveillance technologies being used behind the scenes by law enforcement. As reported by KETV NewsWatch 7 on May 21, 2025, Nebraska State Patrol officers, along with local and federal partners, stopped a vehicle near Seward, NE and uncovered the unprecedented carfentanil stash during what they claimed was a routine traffic stop. Authorities said the amount of the confiscated drug could potentially harm millions of people. Top Omaha, NE, interstate drug trafficking lawyer Daniel Stockmann, argues that the benefits of such a drug possession bust do not outweigh the growing threat of law enforcement's pervasive and rapidly-expanding omnipotence through the use of new technological advancements. Instead, he's raising alarms over potential Constitutional rights infringements leading to such arrests, particularly regarding the increasing use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). These scanners quietly track vehicles' movements, compiling massive amounts of data, often without a warrant and with little public scrutiny. 'ALPRs make everyone a suspect by default,' Stockmann said. 'They collect where you go in your car, when you go, and how often. That's continual public surveillance without consent - and without judicial oversight.' The concern is growing nationwide. A recent investigation by 404 Media uncovered that a law enforcement official utilized a nationwide license plate scanner network to track a woman's vehicle as she crossed state lines while seeking medical treatment. While that case dealt with a controversial medical procedure, Stockmann stresses that the implications of the incident are much more dire. 'This Automated License Plate Readers technology is being framed as a tool for crime prevention, but in practice, it's enabling widespread government surveillance which could then be used to initiate unlawful drug arrests on I-80,' he said. He added that these tools are being quietly integrated into drug interdiction efforts along key corridors like Interstate 80, often without drivers knowing their data is being collected, or how it might be used. 'If a cop can run your plate through a national network and see your movements without a warrant, that's a dangerous precedent,' Stockmann warned. 'It doesn't just affect suspected drug traffickers. It affects everyone.' These concerns are not new for well-known Omaha drug defense attorney Stockmann. For years, he has urged a closer look at how traffic stops are conducted along I-80. He's pointed to patterns that suggest out-of-state drivers are being targeted, particularly near areas like Lincoln and Seward. Stockmann has spent over 15 years challenging drug-related traffic stops on I-80 and has long maintained that out-of-state drivers and minority motorists are disproportionately targeted. He previously issued statements highlighting racial profiling and vague reasons for initiating vehicle searches. 'This isn't just about one drug bust. It's about the bigger picture; where we're heading as a society if we don't draw a clear line between legitimate law enforcement and unconstitutional overreach,' Stockmann said. 'Constitutional rights still matter, even on the highway.' Daniel Stockmann Nebraska Interstate Drug Defense +1 402-884-1031 email us here Visit us on social media: LinkedIn Facebook YouTube X Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Austin city manager removes item on automatic license plate readers from council agenda
The Brief Item regarding automated license plate reader program removed from Austin City Council agenda City manager cites concerns expressed by residents during Tuesday's work session Testimony focused on city's vendor Flock, which works with ICE and uses AI AUSTIN, Texas - Austin's city manager has removed an item concerning the city's automated license plate reader (ALPR) program from Thursday's city council agenda. What we know T.C. Broadnax said in a statement Tuesday night that staff will be withdrawing Item 67, a proposed extension of the city's ALPR program, from Thursday's agenda. Broadnax cites concerns expressed by Austin residents during the council's work session on Tuesday as a reason behind his decision. What they're saying "Given concerns expressed today, I have decided to withdraw this item from the agenda at this time to provide more opportunities to address council members' questions and do our due diligence to alleviate concerns prior to bringing this item back to City Council for consideration," Broadnax said in his message to the Mayor and Council. Local perspective A press release from the office of council member Mike Siegel says that dozens of residents showed up to the work session to testify about the program. "The speakers overwhelmingly testified against the use of ALPRs, citing concerns about personal privacy, threats to immigrant families, threats to political dissidents, and more. Much of the testimony focused on the City's ALPR vendor, Flock, which works closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and also uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop profiles of vehicles based on camera footage and other sources," said the release. What's next Broadnax's decision essentially means Austin's ALPR program will end on June 30. A press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, June 4 at 11:30 a.m. where immigration, reproductive rights and data privacy advocates will be joining Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes, Council member Zo Qadri and Siegel. They are expected to speak against the use of ALPRs and mass surveillance tools in Austin. The Source Information in this report comes from a release from Austin City Council member Mike Siegel's office.
