10 votes

A battle among homeowners in Colorado shows how license plate scanners are reshaping American neighborhoods

Posted by skybrian
Tags: surveillance, usa.co, communities, policing, neighbourhoods, cars, suburbs, vehicle registration plates, scanners.license plate, author.drew harwell, source.the washington post, long read, paywall.hard
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/22/crime-suburbs-license-plate-readers/

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Title
License plate scanners were supposed to bring peace of mind. Instead they tore the neighborhood apart.
Published
Oct 22 2021
Word count
3085 words

2 comments

  1. JXM
    Link
    These types of things should really horrify people and should, frankly be illegal. The good that might come out of stopping/catching one or two criminals is far outweighed by the invasion of...

    These types of things should really horrify people and should, frankly be illegal. The good that might come out of stopping/catching one or two criminals is far outweighed by the invasion of privacy that these systems enable.

    And that isn't even factoring in whether or not the police should be able to access these databases without a warrant.

    7 votes
  2. skybrian
    Link
    From the article: […] […]

    From the article:

    Once found mostly in gated communities, the systems have — with help from aggressive marketing efforts — spread to cover practically everywhere anyone chooses to live in the United States. Flock Safety, the industry leader, says its systems have been installed in 1,400 cities across 40 states and now capture data from more than a billion cars and trucks every month.

    […]

    License plate readers installed on highways, bridges and tow trucks have been used for years by federal agents, state traffic authorities and local police. They’ve played a role in rescuing kidnapped babies, tracking down U.S. Capitol riot suspects and pursuing undocumented immigrants. But Flock’s founding, in 2017, helped adapt vehicle surveillance for the general public, offering residential installations, consumer-friendly interfaces and advertising tailored to a suburban clientele. (Flock’s main competitor, Vigilant Solutions, sells primarily to local governments and police.)

    […]

    Sixteen states have laws governing license plate readers, but most of them restrict government, not private, use. Even those efforts have come up short. In Vermont, one out of 10 license plate database searches by police broke the rules on how the system could be used, a 2018 state audit found.

    5 votes