TBI in support of license plate readers

Our Take

When a state law enforcement agency like TBI comes out in favor of license plate readers, it's worth pausing to ask who benefits from that endorsement. WKRN News 2 does the public a service just by surfacing the statement, but a one-line show of support from an agency that stands to gain access to the data isn't the same as an independent safety or privacy review. Tennesseans deserve to know how TBI plans to use ALPR data, who it shares it with, and how long it's retained — not just that the agency likes the tool.

This is the pattern we see over and over: police and state bureaus praise Flock-style cameras for solving crimes, while the harder questions about mass location tracking, data-sharing with federal agencies, and audit trails get waved off as details to be worked out later. A blanket endorsement from TBI should raise the bar for transparency, not lower it — residents should be asking their city councils and sheriffs for the actual data-sharing agreements before more cameras go up.

Credit to WKRN News 2 for getting the statement on record. If you want to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own community, check our camera map, and if you'd rather push back than just watch, our take-action page has concrete steps.