Why license plate readers miss cars in rain#shorts #shortsvideo #shortsfeed #shortsviral #crime

Our Take

Credit to Partners In True Crime for pointing out something Flock Safety and its peers would rather you not dwell on: weather, glare, mud, and bad angles can all blind a license plate reader. It's a quick, almost throwaway observation in a short-form video, but it cuts against the marketing pitch that these networks are a flawless digital dragnet. They're not. They're cameras with the same blind spots as any other camera, bolted to poles and quietly logging millions of plates a day.

The problem isn't just that ALPRs sometimes miss a car in the rain. It's that when they do work, the output gets treated as unimpeachable evidence in affidavits, tip sheets, and prosecutions, even though error rates, misreads, and environmental failures are rarely disclosed to defense attorneys or the public. A system marketed as infallible surveillance infrastructure, but which actually has the reliability of a fogged-up windshield, should make everyone more skeptical of how this data gets used in court and in policing, not less.

If you want to see how saturated your own neighborhood is with these cameras, rain or shine, check out our camera map, and if you'd rather do something about it, our take-action page has steps for pushing back at the city council level.