ALPR Technology Continues to Raise Privacy Concerns
In a similar vain to privacy concerns raised over Ring doorbells, an Atlanta-based startup has rolled out its own network of smart surveillance cameras across the country that is raising questions of privacy. Flock Safety promises to protect neighborhoods with smart cameras with automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology that are sold to homeowners associations, businesses or law enforcement and are designed to automatically read vehicle license plates “up to 75 MPH, day & night, up to 75 ft. away,” according to the company’s website.
While marketed as a way of protecting citizens, a published report claims that Flock has expanded to do much more than provide for a virtual neighborhood watch. Vice Motherboard reported Wednesday that Flock has quietly built up an extensive nationwide network of its cameras called TALON that are maintained by law-enforcement and offer up to 500 million scans of vehicles a month, according to one email of a series of Flock emails obtained by the publication. Motherboard said its reporters viewed hundreds of pages of internal police emails from nearly 20 police departments around the country obtained using public records requests.
Moreover, more than 500 police departments in more than 1,000 cities have access to Flock cameras, which are not only detecting license-plate information but also people, cars, animals and bicycles, according to info obtained by Motherboard.
The company also boasted that it’s “collecting evidence” that helps police solve four to five crimes per hour, with administrators of neighborhood camera networks able to share video data not only with law enforcement, but also the home owner association’s board, or the individual members of an entire neighborhood, according to the report.
Flock offers two types of cameras—one called the “Sparrow” that that uploads images to a secure server for only those who have access to view and share, and another called the “Falcon” that can use the data collected to automatically alert police if the plate is already on a “hotlist” for potential criminal activity so they can track the vehicle and its occupants.
Supporters of the technology and initiative argue trying to help reduce crime and protect neighborhoods is a good thing. Flock company founder and CEO Garrett Langley was inspired to try “to eliminate non-violent crime while respecting privacy” after he himself was a victim of property crime in his Atlanta neighborhood, according to the website.
Digital privacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized ALPR technology and companies like Flock, claiming “there is no real evidence that ALPRs reduce crime,” and that their technology is “purely another surveillance tool, plain and simple.”