#alpr

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs or LPRs) are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car's location, date, and time. They also capture your car's make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points.

My girlfriend and I decided to try to go to Costco this morning. I went along because she has thrown her back out and I was going to stay in the car, but help her unload the cart into the car. We saw the line was about 1000 people long so we headed out of the parking lot. 

Just as we rolled out a cop pulled up with overheads flashing and siren going. Nicole and I exchanged looks, no idea why we were getting stopped. She pulled over, the cop pulled his car next to hers and said “why are there two of you in the car, madame, you live alone”. This meant his ALPR - automatic licence plate reader - had brought up her data on the fly and he had decided to act.

Nicole said to the effect that he (me) was her boyfriend and was staying in place at her house. The cop used his most officious asshole cop voice to say (in French) ‘Madame, everyone has known for 3 weeks that only people who live together can ride together in a car. He must change his address to yours or I will give you a $1000 ticket plus costs’. I spend way too much time consuming news every day, from TV to Twitter, and that requirement has never been mentioned. 

I leaned forward and spoke to him in English, saying I speak no French and would like him to repeat everything for me. That apparently was too big a task for him so he announced that he would only issue a warning this time but put a mark on her record.

OK, I appreciate enforcing social distancing guidelines, indeed this was my first time off her property in a week, but threatening with an unknown regulation is a bit much. And I am discomfited by the fact a cop can pull up a full dossier on a driver on the fly, not just licence and registration, but domicile and other personal information. 

At least they haven’t come to weld shut our front door, a la China. 

Lawmakers across the country, often in response to public scrutiny of police ALPRs, are introducing or enacting measures aimed at excluding broad swaths of ALPR information from disclosure under these public records laws

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/open-records-laws-reveal-alprs-sprawling-surveillance-now-states-want-to-block-what-the-public-sees

More than 1,700 cameras have been reported in the United States and more than 5,600 have been reported around the world.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/the-open-source-project-deflock-is-mapping-license-plate-surveillance-cameras-all-over-the-world

Florida’s Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission police are performing dozens of license plate lookups on Flock cameras for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, according to public records that show details of the searches.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/wildlife-conservation-police-are-searching-thousands-of-flock-cameras-for-ice

Flock Safety, the private surveillance company already operating tens of thousands of automated license plate readers across the United States, is quietly expanding its surveillance network to include audio monitoring.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/flock-safety-expands-audio-surveillance-deepening-its-network-of-unlawful-data-collection

Police are using their drones as flying automated license plate readers, airborne police cameras that make it easier than ever for law enforcement to follow you.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-watch/law-enforcement-is-beginning-to-use-drones-for-warrantless-mass-surveillance