If you’ve driven in Berkeley recently, your car’s license plate number has almost certainly been recorded and stored in a database used by the police to investigate crimes.
Strictly speaking, Berkeley owns the data, but the tools used to gather and store it are made by Flock Safety, a company that provides surveillance technologies — including automated license plate readers, drones, and gunshot detectors — to thousands of law enforcement agencies and communities across the U.S. Here in Berkeley, there are 52 Flock plate-reading cameras, and the city is considering whether to contract with Flock for a separate network of fixed-surveillance cameras.
But what exactly are these Flock cameras, how do they work, and why have they generated so much debate? We’ve sought to answer these and other frequently asked questions below. If you have a question we didn’t answer, please email [email protected], and we’ll consider updating this post.
What is a license plate reader camera?
License plate reader cameras are surveillance tools that automatically record the license plate number of every vehicle that passes within their sight. They can be fixed to a pole or another stationary location, or a vehicle…