An unfamiliar camera above West Avenue drew the attention of Rhode Island police officer Noel Pichardo while he was working a shift in Pawtucket’s District Five in early fall 2023, as Wired reported.
That moment highlights broader concerns about surveillance tools and the limits of the oversight systems supposed to keep them and their users in check.
Here’s what to know
These systems do more than capture an image of a passing car. License plate readers can log a plate number, the time and place a vehicle appeared, and other identifying information, producing a searchable history investigators can use to map where that vehicle has been.
Departments frequently describe the technology as a way to solve crimes and flag vehicles tied to investigations. Critics focused on privacy have argued for years that the same databases can be abused when agencies lack firm limits on who may run searches, which reasons qualify, and how those searches are examined afterward…