By Jess Reia
For decades, cars dictated urban planning in the United States.
Few could have predicted that they would one day also double as nodes for surveillance.
In thousands of towns and cities across the U.S., automatic license plate readers have been installed at major intersections, bridges and highway off-ramps.
These camera-based systems capture the license plate data of passing vehicles, along with images of the vehicle and time stamps. More recently, these systems are using artificial intelligence to create a vast, searchable database that can be integrated with other law enforcement data repositories.
As a scholar of technology policy and data governance, I see the expansion of automatic license plate readers as a source of deep concern. It’s happening as government authorities are seeking ways to target immigrant and transgender communities, are already using AI to monitor protests, and are considering deploying AI systems for mass surveillance.
Eyes on the road
Using cameras to track license plates dates to the 1970s, when the U.K. was embroiled in a long-simmering conflict with the Irish Republican Army.
The Met, London’s police force, developed a system that used closed-circuit television cameras to monitor and record the license plates of vehicles entering and exiting major roads.
The system and its successors were seen as useful crime fighting tools. Over the next two decades, they expanded to other cities in the U.K. and around the world. In 1998, U.S. Customs and Border Protection implemented this technology. By the 21st century, it had started appearing in cities across the U.S.
There are different ways for a jurisdiction to implement these systems, but local governments usually sign contracts with private companies that provide the hardware and service.
These companies often entice authorities with free trials of surveillance equipment and promises of free access to their data in ways that bypass local oversight laws.
AI thrown into the mix
Recently, AI has been incorporated into these camera systems, significantly increasing their reach.
The vehicle information that’s captured is typically stored in the cloud, creating a massive web of data repositories. If a camera collects information from a suspect’s car or truck – say, one also listed in the National Crime Information Center – AI can flag it and send an instant alert to local law enforcement.
In fact, that’s a selling point of Flock Safety, one of the biggest providers of automatic license plate readers. The company uses infrared cameras to capture images of vehicles. AI then analyzes the data to identify subjects and quickly alert local authorities.
On the surface, automatic license plate readers seem like a logical way to fight crime. More information about the whereabouts of suspects can potentially help law enforcement. And why worry about cameras if you’re following the law?
A spokesperson for Flock told The Conversation that their technology has helped reduce crime, including violent crime, in cities that use their cameras, such as San Francisco and Oakland.
But there are few peer-reviewed studies on their effectiveness. Those that exist find little evidence that they’ve led to reductions in violent crime rates, though they seem to be helpful in solving some crimes, like car thefts.
Furthermore, installation and maintenance are costly.
For example, Johnson City, Tennessee, signed a 10-year, US$8 million contract with Flock in 2025. Richmond, Virginia, paid over $1 million to the company between October 2024 and November 2025 and recently extended its contract, despite opposition from some residents.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Erosion of civil liberties in plain sight
The technology seems to highlight the pitfalls of what scholars call “technosolutionism,” the belief that complex issues like crime, poverty and climate change can be solved by technology.
Even more disquieting, to me, is the fact that these camera systems have created a mass location tracking infrastructure knitted together by artificial intelligence.
The U.S. doesn’t have a federal law like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation that meaningfully limits the collection, retention, sale or sharing of location and mobility data.
As a result, data gathered through surveillance infrastructure in the U.S. can circulate with limited transparency or accountability.
License plate readers can easily be accessed or repurposed beyond their original goals of managing traffic, meting out fines or catching fugitives. All it takes is a shift in enforcement priorities – or a new definition of what counts as a crime – for the original purpose of these cameras to recede from view.
Civil liberties groups and digital rights organizations have been sounding the alarm about these cameras for over a decade.
In 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report titled “You are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used To Record Americans’ Movements.” And the Electronic Frontier Foundation has decried them as “street-level surveillance.”
A counter-camera movement emerges
The promise of these cameras was simple: more data, less crime.
But what followed has been murkier: more data, and a significant expansion of power over the public.
Without robust legal safeguards, this data can possibly be used to target political opposition, facilitate discriminatory policing or chill constitutionally protected activities.
This has already happened during the current administration’s aggressive deportation efforts. Automatic license plate reader databases were shared with federal immigration agencies to monitor immigrant communities. Recently, Customs and Border Protection was granted access to over 80,000 Flock cameras, which have also been used to surveil protests.
Then there’s reproductive health care. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, there were fears that people traveling across state lines to get an abortion could potentially be identified through automatic license plate reader databases. In Texas, authorities accessed Flock’s surveillance data as part of an abortion investigation in 2025.
Flock told NPR in February 2026 that cities control how this information is shared: “Each Flock customer has sole authority over if, when, and with whom information is shared.” The company noted that it has made efforts to “strengthen sharing controls, oversight and audit capabilities within the system.” But NPR also reported that many city officials around the U.S. didn’t realize how widely the data was being shared.
In response, some states have sought to regulate the technology.
Washington state lawmakers are deliberating the Driver Privacy Act. The legislation would prohibit agencies from using the surveillance technology for immigration investigations and enforcement, and from collecting data around certain health care facilities. Protests would also be shielded from surveillance.
Meanwhile, grassroots initiatives such as DeFlock have also emerged.
DeFlock’s online platform documents the spread of automatic license plate reader networks in order to help communities resist their deployment. The movement frames these systems not merely as traffic technologies, but also as linchpins of an expanding government data dragnet – one that demands stronger democratic oversight and community consent.
Jess Reia is Assistant Professor of Data Science at the University of Virginia.
NBR says
Big Brother still watching, but will more eyes
JimboXYZ says
The entirety of Flagler County is a surveillance network, FL too. It’s how they catch the grand theft auto types. Cars equipped with tracking devices for those that fall behind on the lease/purchase payments. The red light cams of the Bush era being leveraged to the next level. I don’t have a problem with it beyond what it costs me for higher cost of living. I’m current with my financial responsibilities. I think the one’s that see it as an intrusion are the one’s stealing cars, not paying their financial responsibilities & crying foul for racism. And if they’re catching drug dealers & addicts chasing their next Fentanyl issues, does anyone care how hard they make their own lives become for playing the cops vs criminals game ? That’s their choice too often. The loaded game they are supposed to lose. at the root of it all are flawed human beings that have the same motivations mankind has always had. The lazy shortcuts in life that trafficking & abusing alcohol & drugs are & hav4e always been. If they could be trusted (the 6 DUI loser that draws the line on finishing a alcohol & drug addiction probation program over religious hypocrisy ?), that would solve a lot of their own self inflicted problems.
Laurel says
Oh Jimbo. I see this as a major intrusion, yet I have never stolen cars, and have paid all my financial responsibilities. How easily you categorize people! So simple, right?
By the way, a couple years ago, I got a bill in the mail from Texas, for a bit of an unreasonable sum, claiming I had not paid for a highway toll on a Texas road. Had the state’s logo, a picture of my license plate, with the rest of the picture blacked out, and an envelope for credit card payment. Problem was, I haven’t been to Texas in decades! So, you can figure out how they got a picture of my plate. Who knows? Maybe from all the damned cameras Palm Coast uses. As you can imagine, I never paid the bill, and never heard from *Texas* again.
JimboXYZ says
If you have a smartphone, that’s the microchipping Bush didn’t get done. But know that you are being monitored & tracked, even in your own home. They sold that as finding your lost or stolen phone as a pro benefit, the con is that they can track you to within a meter or so of where your phone is. Why do you think law enforcement is after anyone’s smartphone for an investigation. Yet somehow that’s not an intrusion or the intrusion that you can tolerate ? The first thing they want is that smartphone when it was potentially the communication device that was used to commit the crime. And it also applies to our shopping habits. From the moment that anyone arrives at a Walmart. They’re watching anyone. It seems disingenuous to feign outrage over intrusions of privacy like that, that somehow a machine that scanned your license plate is an intrusion of an unacceptable level ?
One of my biggest issues with smartphones & the data plans is that at any hour of any given day, there is a corporation or a government, even spammers & scammers that can randomly poke a phone number. I spend a good portion of my day cleaning the smartphone of that garbage out of texts, emails and even see the missed calls from those that see me as their next sale as a customer. That’s what technology has done to all of us as victims. anytime we agree to terms of use for a EULA, we agree to allow those level of intrusions. End of the day, video surveillance has caught more criminals than wronged innocents. And like I said, if they catch the outlaw criminals, that’s what we are paying for. And we all know that somehow traffic cams became a racist agenda because the demographics of criminals doesn’t match DEI statistics.
Whether it’s as simple as catching a road rager, public safety is what matters most. At the end of the the same day mentioned in the 1st paragraph of this comment (and there are many more “end of the days”), if people weren’t blatant liars to commit crimes, there wouldn’t be a need for them. That much is never going to change. See some folks perceive themselves as being categorized. Law enforcement doesn’t care who did the crime, the crime is the category. When we see that video of the luxury car that was stolen, it doesn’t matter the race or gender (real or identifying as for pronouns), the bigger picture is recovering the stolen vehicle, punishing the one that stole it.
When the technology is flawed and an innocent person has to straighten out the mess ? I think there should be a compensation for clearing one’s good name for it. We live in a society that has monetized that much. If one has to clear their good name for a erroneously false accusation, I think that should be their financial responsibility of a burden, to compensate someone that had to prove themselves innocent. I’d be concerned if my license plate showed up in Texas & I wasn’t in Texas. State of Texas should have no problem cutting the check for anyone’s time for their mistake.
Al says
This is fantastic, a system that can identify immigrants and trans people. When people break the law how dare enforcement try to identify them. What if there was a plate reader near Nancy Guthries home? More radical bs by people claiming to be experts in made up fields.
R.S. says
And that’s precisely the problem with those systems: overreach in the hands of immoral people with power.
Deborah Coffey says
FYI: Trans people are not criminals, Bubba. What if we made racism and bigotry FELONIES?
Pierre Tristam says
Fortunately, our readers–no license plate readers needed–are savvy enough to identify a bigot when they read one.
T says
Al is a closet one i see its ok al come out
Ed P says
Becoming standard equipment on all toll roads, toll bridges, and even gated communities.
Including the Hammock Dunes and bridge.
The Geode says
…But the author made sure that they mentioned “Marginilized Communities” to use race-bait us into a frenzy. (lol). Will these people ever stop trying to gaslight us?
dan says
Not sure why people think this is a good thing. These plate readers/AI surveillance cameras track you with a time stamp and location- pinpointing how often and where you travel. If we become submissive with this, what other technologies will they create next for us? And what if someone who has access to these systems has malicious intent against you? Think of a crazy stalker, a deranged ex/lover, or an authoritarian entity of the state. They’ll know where you are and when you’ll be there. This is bleak technology to say the least.
R.S. says
Europe has used cameras for speeding control for many, many years. It’s not turned them into a prison society or other abomination; in fact, while we have a mere 6% of the world’s population, we have 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. ‘T’ain’t the technology; it’s the mindset of this country that’s the problem.
feddy says
Nobody had a problem when camera technology in a earlier form was the key to track down the Boston marathon bombers.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
It’s not great now, but just wait until the liberals take over and we start throwing the pederasts and pedophiles in prison. All of that big surveillance is going to help do the job. :)
Sherry says
Absolutely Horrific! We are now living Orwell’s dystopian nightmare! If you want to catch a “criminal”, get a damned “Court Order” FIRST. . . instead of “SPYING” on innocent private citizens!!!
Our freedoms and rights are being shredded before our very eyes! Maga, why are you OK with this???
Ed P says
Sherry,
Fun facts from Sausalito California P.D. Portal for transparency.
Sausalito California Population 7100.
FIXED Traffic cameras (ALPR) 10. 1 for every 700 residents.
This is in addition to the mobile mounted vehicles.
In your town, a car plate is captured every 2.14 miles.
They monitor about 150,000 unique reads every 30 days.
Mr. Bill says
From this article. “The promise of these cameras was simple: more data, less crime.”
Wrong, Miss Reia. The promise was more correct data at the right time and more justice to the robbers, kidnappers, child molesters, murderers, cop killers, and car thieves in real time.
Ever see the old TV show The First 48, Miss Reia?
Probably not as it was before your time.
The premise was that police had a very short window to solve a murder…like within the first 48 hours…after that the leads went cold. License readers are real time right now. The reason city’s are buying them is…..they work.
Crime might not be going down….but this technology is catching them. Now if Judges would just do their job.
Do I have to mention the fact that the police can break off a chase, saving many lives and pick up the perps when they stop somewhere or enter a new city. You’re for that aren’t you?
And really—nobody is looking for or cares about your dress up transgenders, and you know it. Give us a break.
I tell you what……Why don’t you and your ACLU friends get off this proven crime fighter and do a study on recidivism. Come back and tell us how successful letting repeat violent offenders go with a love tap and a promise to behave is working for the rest of us. That would actually be worthwhile.
These cameras Target Transgenders…Spare me.
Laurel says
Mr. Bill: “Crime might not be going down….but this technology is catching them.”
What?
It wasn’t too long ago that we, here in the U.S., were mortified by China’s use of cameras linked to personal data, focusing on people walking down the street. What happened? You got used to it? That’s the plan.
Skibum says
Like all types of technology, it can be a very good, useful tool when used properly in the hands of ethical users. Bad apples can abuse anything they get their hands on as well. We have many excellent examples where local license plate readers have allowed FCSO to track and apprehend criminals who were driving stolen vehicles, fleeing crime scenes after committing felonies, etc.
License plate readers are extremely useful in helping find missing, at risk children who have been kidnapped in custody battles, as well as adults with dementia who have taken off in their cars to places unknown. What a fantastic resource for law enforcement. I wish license plate readers had been something that was available to help me during my law enforcement career!
Personally, I am much, much more worried about how AI (artificial intelligence) is and will be used in society than I am concerned about law enforcement use of license plate readers as a tool to help solve crimes.
Sherry says
Hello Skibum. . . here’s the problem. . . you cannot separate the two. Of course “AI’ is going to be completely integrated with “ALL” surveillance technology. Similar to what they have in London, for example. The problem is, this massive invasion of privacy is being rolled out “without” a presentation to and permission of the citizens in our country.
With “Big Brother” watching your every move. . . your “right” to push back in any public way against a government “CONTROLLING” you is GONE! This is a tool of “Fascist Rule”!
Laurel says
Skibum: Think about who will be in control of the data. Big tech billionaires, and their anonymous DOGE babies.
OaulT says
The Metropolitan Police in London has advanced a long way beyond licence plate tracking. Cities in the UK have comprehensive network of CCTV cameras track peoples’ movements on city streets, identifying them with facial recognition software. It’s supposed to be about crime prevention but is also being used to identify participants in Britain’s frequent political protests.
Fortunately there’s nothing like that in Palm Coast, yet, but how long will it be that way? With the powers now granted to the Department of Homeland Security it may not be long before all those Ring doorbell cams are required to be linked and fed into an AI co-ordinated watch system. No, this is not paranoia or a fantasy, we are all under surveillance.
Laurel says
Nothing like it in Palm Coast yet? Check out all the cameras on the entrances to Palm Coast from I-95. The ring camera thing has already begun.
A Concerned Observer says
Believe me. NO ONE wants surveillance any cameras of any kind until they are involved in a traffic crash where they feel they were NOT at fault, their car is vandalized or their home is broken into. Then it’s “Where are the cameras?”
If you are doing crime, you must do the time. I have absolutely no worries of being captured by a traffic surveillance camera or a license plate reader. Actually, there could be a few more…
Sherry says
@ concerned. . . the camera you need is attached to “your” car. If you have an older car without that kind of camera, they are cheap to buy and easy to install yourself.
There is really no need to “SPY” on every living soul just to help with solving crimes. How about the concept of improving our lost “moral compass”, and creating those lost “boot straps” so that there is less crime to begin with?
Mr. Bill says
I’m sure glad you never met Ted Bundy.
There is real evil in the world.
They don’t care about your moral compass or helping themselves by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
They are here among us, and the ONLY thing keeping them at bay is the threat of being caught. Some don’t even consider that.
Think of these cameras as extra insurance to keep YOU safe.
Be careful out there.
Laurel says
Thirty-four felony convictions and he still doesn’t care. Hang on to your healthcare, your Medicare, your social security, and your wallet. The bad guys are out there…and in office.
Sherry says
@ mr bill.. . .. you really, really, really need to read and re-read Orwell’s 1984. It’s in the “banned book” section of the library. . .
Sherry says
@mr bill. . . We are all only as safe as our constitution keeps us! Our constitution is being trashed by trump, the Maga Supreme Court and Maga republicans in congress! Therefore, we are not safe at all because our rights and freedoms are being slashed at every turn!!!
Mr. Bill says
Very interesting. Please name one right or freedom that you have lost. …I’ll wait.
Mr. Bill says
Never mind. I forgot about the “right” to kill your baby. Sorry.
R.S. says
Twisting words won’t get you there, Bill. You should look at relevant facts. In utero, it’s not a baby; it’s a fetus. And there are some serious ethicists who might even agree when physicians abort a post-birth being if it’s an anencephalic birth. And, yes, there are such. And, yes, physicians will do that.
Sherry says
@ mr bill. . . Get educated!
Under the Trump administration, civil rights advocates and international organizations have documented the diminishment of several key rights and freedoms, including press freedom, voting rights, reproductive rights, and immigrant protections. Reports from organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch highlight a pattern of executive actions and policy shifts that have weakened established legal protections.
*Freedom of the Press and Speech
*Journalistic Access:
The administration has restricted physical access for major news outlets like The New York Times and CNN at the White House and Pentagon, often replacing them with ideologically friendly outlets.
*Retaliatory Lawsuits: High-profile defamation lawsuits and legal threats have been leveled against media companies, including the Wall Street Journal and ABC.
*Information Control: New Pentagon rules reportedly required journalists to seek official authorization before reporting information, leading many to hand in their press passes.
*Funding Cuts: Efforts were made to cut over $1 billion in public broadcasting funds for NPR and PBS.
*Voting and Democratic Participation Registration Barriers: Executive orders have sought to require documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration, which critics argue could disenfranchise millions of eligible citizens.
*Voter Roll Scrutiny: The administration directed agencies to help prosecute noncitizen voters, using screening tools that have been criticized as error-prone.*
*Targeting Minority Districts:
The DOJ has indicated plans to target majority-minority voting districts, potentially redrawing lines that historically allowed these communities to elect preferred candidates.
*Immigration and Citizenship Birthright Citizenship:
An executive order attempted to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens, though it has been blocked by multiple federal judges for likely violating the 14th Amendment.Asylum Restrictions: Policy directives have denied entry to virtually all migrants at the southern border by invoking constitutional powers to override federal asylum law.
*Mass Deportations: The administration has prioritized mass deportation efforts and directed agencies to deny federal funds to “sanctuary cities”.
*Civil Rights and Equality Reproductive Rights:
Federal websites containing information on reproductive health and patient rights have been removed, alongside policies weakening abortion access.
*LGBTQIA+ Protections: Orders have rescinded protections for trans rights and restricted access to gender-affirming care for youth.
*DEI Programs: Long-standing orders addressing discrimination in federal contracting were rescinded, and a ban was placed on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government.
Mr. Bill says
You still haven’t shown me any “rights and freedoms” that you have lost, except “Reproductive Rights” that was never a “right” and was decided by the majority of the Supreme Court.
You were never supposed to kill your baby.
Just look at yourself. I’m sure Sherry is glad her mother made the right “choice”.
Adoption, marriage, sole parenthood….. not death!
Maybe we could ban the “right” of Mother’s Day to virtue signal to all the abortion-istas out there so they wouldn’t be sad on that wonderful, happy day.
And believe me, in their hearts….they regret what they did. Very sad indeed. Wouldn’t wish that long term, (lifetime) grief on anyone. Very sad
Laurel says
Mr. Bill: You have one issue, and that’s monitoring women’s bodies, and taking away their 50 year RIGHT to choose. You completely ignored all the other proof presented by Sherry. You cannot cherry pick and ignore all you, personally, don’t like. It doesn’t work that way. You asked for one right provided, and ignored the answer. That discredits you on the argument.
Good luck with all your adoptions, bless your heart!
Sherry says
@ Laurel. . . Thank You! Just proof positive that Maga asinine blowhards simply “Can’t Handle The Truth”!
Sherry says
Regarding women’s rights to control “their” OWN sacred bodies:
* Being FORCED by the government to carry and give birth to a child from RAPE= ABOMINATION!
* Being FORCED by the government to carry and give birth to a child of INCEST= ABOMINATION!
* Being FORCED by the government to carry and give birth to a child ENDANGERING the “Life” of the Mother= ABOMINATION
* Being HUNTED DOWN by the government for traveling to receive “Legal” health care= ABOMINATION
* Pressures by the government to make BIRTH CONTROL Illegal Nationwide = ABOMINATION
Sherry says
Regarding all the other rights and freedoms the “Fascist/Maga” trump administration is slashing. . . since “I” firmly believe that the inequality and detriment suffered by others also brings “me” suffering. So yes, the destruction of our democratic republic direct effects “me”!! Since I see our constitution being “abused” by a corrupt criminal who is hell bent on enriching himself, his family, and his fellow “Billionaire” buddies at the great expense of our fellow citizens. . . yes, my right and freedoms are being trampled on. . . simply because “I Care” about our country, and “I Care” about liberty and justice for “ALL”!