On The Front Lines
Sounding Alarm Over Mass Surveillance Systems, Rutherford Institute Opposes Police Use of License Plate Readers
CHARLOTESVILLE, Va. — At a time when growing numbers of unsuspecting Americans are being swept up into a massive digital data dragnet that does not distinguish between those who are innocent of wrongdoing, suspects, or criminals, The Rutherford Institute is responding to reports that the Charlottesville Police Department hopes to adopt the Flock License Plate Recognition (LPR) system to “prevent, deter and solve crime.” Reminding government officials of the need for transparency, accountability and respect for privacy, the Institute is urging the City Council to oppose the adoption of any license plate readers in recognition of the potential dangers posed by governmental overreach, data leaks, and invasion of privacy.
“Nothing is ever as simple as the government claims it is, and these unregulated, AI-enabled, mass surveillance cameras masquerading as crime prevention would be no exception,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “Although preemptive precrime programs, driven by surveillance cameras and fusion centers, are popping up all across the country, they are not necessarily making communities any safer, but they are endangering individual freedoms. As such, the threats posed by these license plate readers to First and Fourth Amendment rights cannot be understated.”
Part of a public-private partnership program between police and the surveillance industry, license plate readers signal a turning point in the transition from a police state to a police-driven surveillance state. License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, and then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. Flock Safety, one of the major players in the video surveillance industry, has moved beyond merely capturing photographs of license plates to creating a vast surveillance network that crisscrosses the country, feeds data to interconnected, nationwide databases accessible by law enforcement, and combines that data with artificial intelligence and machine learning. According to the Intercept, “The company’s ‘vehicle fingerprint’ technology goes beyond traditional models, capturing not only license plate numbers, but also the state, vehicle type, make, color, missing and covered plates, bumper stickers, decals, and roof racks.”
In calling on Charlottesville to oppose the adoption of license plate readers, The Rutherford Institute warned that the data from license plate readers could allow government officials to identify and track individuals as they go about their personal lives, revealing intimate details relating to healthcare, mental wellbeing, relationships, religious practices, and engaging in lawful First Amendment activities such as attending political rallies and protests. In raising concerns about the Charlottesville Police Department’s reported interest in mass surveillance systems, the Institute’s letter also points out that LPRs raise significant First and Fourth Amendment concerns, constitute warrantless searches which might be in violation of the Fourth Amendment, are ripe for abuse by predators and hackers, are error-ridden, can give rise to profiling based on race and religion, and lack a significant mechanisms for oversight and accountability.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated, and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.
