CAIR-SFBA Director Zahra Billoo Comments on Automated License Plate Reader Cameras Lawsuit
The short version: CAIR-SFBA's Zahra Billoo warns that ALPR networks don't just snap plates — they build a searchable timeline of everywhere you drive.
Our Take
Credit to CAIR - Council on American Islamic Relations for putting a sharp point on something we harp on constantly: the danger was never the single photo of your plate at one intersection. It's the thousands of cameras stitched together into a searchable database that can reconstruct months of your movements on demand — where you worship, who you visit, what clinic you drove to. Zahra Billoo's comments on this lawsuit cut straight to that core problem, and it's exactly the kind of scrutiny these systems deserve from communities that know what it feels like to be watched first and asked questions later.
This isn't an abstract legal theory. Flock Safety and similar ALPR networks have quietly blanketed neighborhoods, houses of worship, and commuter routes across the country, often with little public debate and even less oversight on who can query that data and why. When a mosque's parking lot, a protest route, or an immigration attorney's office sits inside a camera's range, the "public road" argument starts looking pretty thin as a justification for permanent, retrospective surveillance.
Lawsuits like the one Billoo is commenting on are one of the few checks left on this expansion, but residents don't have to wait on courts to act. Check our camera map to see what's logging your plate right now, and head to our take-action page if you want to push back at your next city council meeting.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CAIR - Council on American Islamic Relations, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.