License plate readers help solve crimes in NM
The short version: KOAT's segment touts ALPR crime-solving in New Mexico but skips the harder questions about data retention, oversight, and who else can access these camera networks.
Our Take
KOAT's Action 7 News gives viewers the standard local-news framing on license plate readers: a police spokesperson cites a case where the tech helped, cameras roll on a patrol car, and the story wraps in under two minutes. That's the pitch Flock Safety and its police partners want on the air — a tidy anecdote that skips past the actual policy questions New Mexicans should be asking.
What's missing is any mention of how long plate data is stored, who can query it, whether it's shared across state lines or with federal agencies like ICE, and what happens when the system flags an innocent driver. "It helped solve a crime" is true of almost any surveillance tool in the right circumstances — the question is never whether it can work, it's whether the tradeoff in privacy and mission creep is worth it, and whether the public ever got a real vote on installing a statewide tracking grid one intersection at a time.
Credit to KOAT for covering the topic, but a single feel-good story shouldn't be the last word. Check our map to see if these cameras are already watching your street in New Mexico, and visit 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 KOAT, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.