Police officers across the US are using automated license plate readers (ALPR) to track individual romantic interests.
according to a Analysis by the Institute of JusticeThere are already 14 cases across the country where police are accused of misusing ALPR access to enforce spouse, Expenseand even complete strangers.
The timing is surprising, with most of the stalking cases coming after 2024 – the year AI-ALRP company Flock Safety took the initiative massive expansion In over 4,000 US cities. Although Flock claims it has internal safeguards in place to prevent such abuse, the majority of the 14 cases were disclosed by victims, as opposed to company or internal police investigations.
For example, in Milwaukee, an eight-year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Department was named Josue Ayala resigned Flock was reportedly used to track his romantic partner, as well as the romantic partner’s ex-wife, approximately 180 times in just two months. two victims just became aware He was being followed after one of them saw his license plate at an auditing site HaveIBeenFlocked.com.
Today, Flock operates in more than 6,000 cities across the US 76,000 license plate readers and counting. Looking at the proliferation of license plate readers and the power dynamics at play – Police be careful for each otherAfter all – it is not hard to imagine that the number of active ALRP abuse cases is very high indeed.
“The fundamental problem with these systems is that they put private information about people’s movements over time into the hands of every official,” said Michael Soifer, a lawyer at the Institute for Justice, whose work has included challenging the ALPR expansion. “Without the constitutional protections of a warrant requirement, this conceivably allows officers to abuse their access to these systems for things like stalking romantic partners.”
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