Automatic License Plate Scanners Keeping Tabs On Millions Of Cars
The short version: A 2014 RT America report resurfaces to show LA's 3-million-scans-a-week ALPR habit was a warning sign we ignored for a decade.
Our Take
Credit to PigMine 6 for digging up this RT America segment from 2014, back when "nearly 70 percent of police departments" using license plate readers still sounded shocking. Reporter Lindsay France's trip to Los Angeles captured a moment right before this technology went from notable to normalized — the ACLU was already flagging that LA agencies were dumping three million scans a week into a shared database, with no clear rules on who could see it, how long it stuck around, or what it would be used for beyond the stated purpose.
What makes this old footage worth watching now isn't nostalgia, it's the trend line. A decade ago three million weekly scans in one metro area was treated as an alarming outlier. Today Flock Safety alone has cameras logging billions of plate reads a year across thousands of communities, often installed with zero public hearing and shared across jurisdictions and even with federal agencies. The exact fears the ACLU raised in this clip — permanent location histories on innocent drivers, mission creep, quiet data-sharing agreements — didn't get resolved. They just scaled up.
If a segment about 2014-era LA made you uneasy, take a look at what's running in your own zip code now. Check our camera map to see the ALPR network that's grown up around you, and if you want to push back, our take-action guide has concrete steps for getting answers from local officials.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of PigMine 6, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.