A growing network of automated license plate readers is raising fresh concerns over privacy and the Fourth Amendment after an incident in Milwaukee highlighted how easily vehicle-location data can potentially be misused.
In one reported case, a Milwaukee police officer accessed a private company’s camera system to locate his romantic partner 124 times. The troubling detail was not simply the officer’s alleged misuse of the system. It was the fact that a warrant was not required to conduct those searches.
The technology involved belongs to Flock Safety, a company whose automated license plate reader network has expanded rapidly across the United States. The company says its network now includes roughly 120,000 cameras serving thousands of law enforcement agencies.
