Big Brother on the road: Backlash grows against license plate surveillance

Every time you drive through an intersection, pass a police cruiser, or pull into a parking lot, there’s a growing chance your vehicle is being logged into a database you never agreed to join.

Across the country, cities are rapidly expanding automated license plate reader systems — networks of cameras that record where vehicles travel, when they appear, and increasingly, what makes them unique.

The San Jose lawsuit argues that vehicle tracking data can already be shared across jurisdictions and searched broadly.

Whose ‘safety’?

Much of the backlash now centers on Flock Safety, the largest automated license plate reader company in the United States. The company says its cameras operate in more than 5,000 communities, connect to over 4,800 law enforcement agencies across 49 states, and process more than