You’re driving down a Murfreesboro road and see a new camera set up on a black pole. What is it for? Are you being recorded? It’s likely a Flock Safety license plate reader, part of a recently growing automated system used by the Murfreesboro Police Department and many other law enforcement agencies.
According to MPD’s Real Time Crime Center webpage, the systems “capture images of vehicles and use software to process the vehicle’s license plate information.” MPD says the cameras identify vehicles, not people, and do not use facial recognition.
Critics, however, say the systems make it too easy for law enforcement to track motorists’ movement in real time, and to target and surveil citizens with no probable cause, warrant, case number or active investigation, and strongly object to the network of cameras, citing concerns of privacy and the growing surveillance state…