Police Accused of Using License Plate Readers to Track Women
The short version: AFRO's report on alleged ALPR misuse to track women is a reminder: once surveillance infrastructure exists, abuse by those with access is a matter of when, not if.
Our Take
AFRO's reporting on allegations that license plate readers were used to monitor women rather than catch criminals is exactly the kind of story we keep warning about. Flock Safety and similar vendors pitch this technology as a tool for solving crimes, but every camera is also a potential tool for stalking, harassment, or abuse of power by anyone who can log in — officer or otherwise. The companies rarely build in enough friction to stop that from happening.
This isn't a hypothetical. Departments across the country have handed out access to databases that log where people drive, when, and how often, with audit systems that are often reactive at best. When the people being watched are private citizens with no criminal suspicion attached to them — including women being tracked by men with access to the system — the "public safety" justification collapses. Credit to AFRO for pushing this story into the open; these cases rarely surface because the people most harmed by misuse usually don't know the surveillance exists until it's too late.
If you want to see whether these cameras are already watching your neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you'd rather do something about it than just worry, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of AFRO, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.