Across the US, state and local governments are restricting how police can use automated license plate readers (ALPRs). These cameras, such as the Flock cameras leased by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), photograph every license plate that passes them and feed the data into a national network searchable by a vast number of law enforcement agencies.
The Colorado legislature has proposed a bill that would require police to obtain a warrant before they seek historical data from the cameras. The city of Denver amended its contract with Flock, the largest manufacturer of the cameras, to keep ALPR data from being shared with the federal government. Sixteen states have laws on the books restricting how police departments can use them.
Here in Washington, Skamania County and the cities of Olympia, Redmond and Lynnwood recently turned off their cameras, at least temporarily. They made the changes after the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights published a report exposing weaknesses in the security of Flock cameras and a county court ruled data collected by ALPRs is public record…