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The ACLU has compiled multiple cases in which police stopped vehicles based solely on data from automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras such as Flock, with the earliest dating back to 2025. In one case, a woman traveling across state lines was stopped after someone claiming to be an FBI agent checked her plate, on the grounds that she was from out of state and her itinerary did not match database records; in another, a man was stopped for traveling back and forth between Wisconsin and Michigan, with police suspecting him of trafficking marijuana. This year, an Oklahoma judge called such stops unconstitutional indiscriminate mass surveillance, and a Florida legislator has introduced a bill requiring a warrant to search ALPR databases.
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Oct 28
TechSpot
US police pull over vehicles based on suspicious driving patterns determined by license plate recognition cameras
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has reviewed multiple cases in which police pulled over vehicles based solely on data from automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras such as Flock, with the earliest dating back to 2025. In one case, a woman traveling across state lines was stopped by someone claiming to be an FBI agent who checked her plate, on the grounds that she was from out of state and her itinerary did not match database records; another man was stopped for traveling back and forth between Wisconsin and Michigan, with police suspecting him of trafficking marijuana. This year, an Oklahoma judge called such stops unconstitutional indiscriminate mass surveillance, and a Florida legislator has proposed a bill requiring a search warrant to search ALPR databases.