Practically every day on the news, we see masked men carrying guns, who may or may not be ICE officers (it’s impossible to know because they have refused to identify themselves), storming into immigrant communities and snatching mothers, fathers, and children off the streets.
And, as City Council Member Mike Siegel noted at a June 3 work session, recent reports allege that ICE is tapping into data networks created by automated license plate readers, a form of mass surveillance, to help locate the people they hunt. ALPRs use cameras which can snap thousands of photos of license plates and other car details each minute and are installed at traffic signals and inside police cars, letting law enforcement track the movements of people through a city.
Somewhere between 75% and 93% of large cities have ALPR programs. Austin has operated its own pilot program since 2023, one that Austin Police Department leaders say has helped officers solve serious crimes and recover stolen vehicles. The program was run by a private company called Flock Safety, but the city let its contract with Flock, and thus its ALPR program, end on July 1, after Austinites said they fear the program threatens residents’ civil liberties…