For decades, urban planning in the United States has centered around the automobile. Now, vehicles are silently becoming instruments of mass surveillance. Across the country, thousands of towns and cities have deployed automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) at intersections, bridges, and highway exits. These systems capture vehicle data – license plates, images, and timestamps – and increasingly utilize artificial intelligence to create searchable databases linked to other law enforcement records.
The Expansion of Surveillance Technology
The use of cameras to track license plates began in the 1970s in the UK, stemming from conflicts with the Irish Republican Army. London’s police force developed a closed-circuit television system for monitoring vehicles entering and exiting major roads. Over time, this technology spread globally, including implementation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 1998, and then to cities across the United States.
Local governments typically contract with private companies like Flock Safety to provide the hardware and service. These companies often offer free trials and data access, bypassing local oversight laws. Recently, AI integration has significantly increased the reach of these systems. Captured vehicle information is stored in the cloud, creating a vast network of data repositories. AI flags vehicles listed in crime databases, instantly alerting law enforcement.
Lack of Legal Safeguards
The U.S. lacks federal laws comparable to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which limits the collection, retention, and sharing of location data. As a result, surveillance data in the U.S. circulates with limited transparency and accountability. This data can be repurposed beyond its original intent – traffic management, fines, or fugitive capture – with a simple shift in enforcement priorities.
Civil liberties groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have warned about these cameras for over a decade. The ACLU published a 2013 report titled “You are Being Tracked,” while the EFF has labeled them as “street-level surveillance.”
The Cost and Effectiveness of Surveillance
While proponents argue that ALPRs enhance crime-fighting capabilities, peer-reviewed studies show little evidence of significant reductions in violent crime rates. Some studies suggest they are helpful in solving car thefts, but at a high cost. Cities like Johnson City, Tennessee, have signed multi-million-dollar contracts for these systems, such as a $8 million 10-year deal with Flock Safety. Richmond, Virginia, spent over $1 million on the technology between 2024 and 2025 and recently extended its contract despite local opposition.
Targeting Vulnerable Communities
The technology has been used to target immigrant and transgender communities, monitor protests, and even enforce reproductive health restrictions. Federal immigration agencies have accessed ALPR databases to monitor immigrant communities. Customs and Border Protection gained access to over 80,000 Flock cameras, which have been used to surveil protests. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there were fears that ALPRs could be used to identify individuals traveling across state lines for abortions, and Texas authorities accessed Flock data as part of an abortion investigation in 2025.
Resistance and Regulation Efforts
In response to growing concerns, grassroots initiatives such as DeFlock have emerged to map and resist the deployment of ALPR networks. The movement frames these systems not as traffic technologies but as part of an expanding government data dragnet requiring stronger oversight. Some states, like Washington, are considering legislation such as the Driver Privacy Act to limit the use of ALPRs for immigration enforcement and protect sensitive locations like healthcare facilities and protests.
The expansion of AI-powered ALPRs represents a significant erosion of civil liberties. Without robust legal safeguards, this technology poses a threat to political opposition, discriminatory policing, and constitutionally protected activities.
