Are you in Illinois? Do you have an ALPR problem? Are you wondering what an ALPR is anyway?! You’re in the right place!
Police in your town may have had these installed (often secretly, without your consent). These cameras constantly takes pictures (without a warrant) and sends it to a private company. This company is Flock Safety. The data from these cameras have been accessed illegally in Illinois in violation of the Illinois TRUST Act and ALPR data sharing prohibitions. That’s only scratching the surface.
ICE and CBP are terrorizing our communities utilizing surveillance data. They depend on local police surveillance to build their watchlists. Rapid response efforts are enhanced when we build resiliant communities. That definitely includes banning surveillance immediately. Oak Park and Evanston have canceled their Flock Safety contracts. You can too!
For more information reach out and/or visit our case study called “Unwelcoming Evanston“. We also have a playlist on Youtube.
What is “ALPR”?
ALPR is an initialism for “automatic license plate reader”. It is a camera system that captures everything in its view. Each image is run through machine learning (AI) systems to pull out information about the plate on a vehicle and much more. It also stores a full record of time, place, direction, and visual traits that can be linked together as well as combined with other data sources to profile people for criminalization.
Is ALPR modern technology?
Not quite. ALPR was originally was invented in the 1970’s by Britains’s Home Office Scientific Development Branch. Originally it was coined “ANPR” – automatic number-plate recognition. It was used to suppress the mine workers’ strike and later to create a “Ring of Steel” around London as a counterinsurgency measure due to British rule in Ireland.
Modern systems have additional and networked capabilities but the roots of ALPR are grounded in conflict and oppression. You might hear the term “force multiplier” used and that is also a term of military.
Who are the experts in surveillance?
Experts in surveillance are not the users and they are not the salespeople. Experts are the people who live with and study the impacts of surveillance in their daily lives.
Why is this issue so complicated?
The technology of ALPR is used to mystify the simple concept of surveillance. It is meant to confound and confuse making surveillance seem necessary and hard to resist. This is a human social issue, not a technology issue.
This is a simple issue of surveillance.
Doesn’t ALPR stop crime?
A large proportion of crime (like wage theft and pollution etc) isn’t tracked or prosecuted. In fact, data leaking by ALPR users violate state law every day. ALPRs bring more harm into communities than they ever mitigate. The result of ALPR is violence, that is what weapons do.
What is the best vendor?
The best way to secure data is to never collect it in the first place. No new vendor and no technological twiddling can make what surveillance weapons do any better for our society and its people.
Vendors are private profit-motivated companies. They depend on the fear of crime and moral panics to increase their profits.
The science behind ALPR surveillance.
No study on “safety” was ever done that independently came to the conclusion that an ALPR should be invented/deployed as a solution. ALPRs are a hammer looking for a nail.
What is the best oversight for ALPR?
We’ve seen police fight efforts of oversight with ALPR just like they do for any form of oversight. Surveillance cannot be mitigated or reformed. There is an undeniable power relationship that is inherent to surveillance.
Would Sanctuary City Status or Ordinance Help?
Every town in Illinois has it already! It’s called the TRUST act but police still use wantonly use surveillance weapons.
