Milwaukee Police Department uses automated license plate readers to capture photos of vehicles, and sometimes their occupants.
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that are typically mounted on street poles, streetlights, highway overpasses, mobile trailers, or attached to police squad cars. ALPRs automatically capture all license plate numbers that come into view, along with the location, date, and time. The data, which includes photographs of the vehicle and sometimes its driver and passengers, is then uploaded to a central server.
Taken in the aggregate, ALPR data can paint an intimate portrait of a driver’s life and even chill First Amendment protected activity. ALPR technology can be used to target drivers who visit sensitive places such as health centers, immigration clinics, gun shops, union halls, protests, or centers of religious worship.
Drivers have no control over whether their vehicle displays a license plate because the government requires all car, truck, and motorcycle drivers to display license plates in public view. So it’s particularly disturbing that automatic license plate readers are used to track and record the movements of millions of ordinary people, even though the overwhelming majority are not connected to a crime.
Read more:
- Milwaukee Police Department Standard Operating Procedure 735 - Automated License Plate Readers
- Flock license plate readers help police find stolen vehicles in Milwaukee
- Wisconsin AI-powered Flock cameras are tracking where you drive
- What are Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)
This technology is only one reason why we need a Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance. CCOPS would require oversight and community input in invasive surveillance technologies, allowing the Wisconsinites being surveilled to make informed decisions about their privacy.
Milwaukee deserves to know how the police are surveilling us. Milwaukee needs CCOPS.
