by Surveillance Technologies Reach a New Level
Automatic license plate reading systems are becoming increasingly common and generate colossal amounts of information about drivers who are not even aware of it. However, law enforcement is taking these technologies to a whole new level, literally, by implementing them on unmanned aerial vehicles.
Drones with “Eyes” for License Plates
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, some police departments have already deployed drones equipped with automatic license plate readers. The Flock Safety Aerodome system is cited as an example, positioned as the “future of aerial support for public safety”.
Rahul Sidhu from Flock Safety describes this system as a “flying LPR camera”, which is quite logical, given the company’s specialization in license plate recognition technologies and gunshot detection.
Scale of the Surveillance Network
The company states that its technologies are used by over 5,000 law enforcement agencies, as well as over 6,000 communities and 1,000 businesses. This provides “billions of monthly license plate reads”, making their network “the largest stationary LPR network” in America. Now the company aims to expand this network into the sky.
Competitors in the Aerial Surveillance Market
Flock Safety is not the only company in this market. Axon and Motorola Solutions also support the idea of a “drone as a first responder”. Motorola representatives note that 81% of police departments in the US already have or are developing drone use programs.
Privacy and Error Concerns
This practice raises serious privacy concerns, as law enforcement collects billions of data points about people who have not committed any offenses.
LPRs routinely make mistakes, causing police to stop the wrong car and terrorize the driver.
It is also noted that police have misused law enforcement databases, using them to track people crossing state lines for abortions.
Call for Restrictions and Awareness
The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls on communities to demand restrictions on police use of drones and license plate readers. It also notes the need to raise awareness among public officials who might approve a drone program without realizing they are simultaneously agreeing to a program of flying license plate readers.
The rapid spread of aerial surveillance technologies is occurring against a backdrop of a lack of clear legislative frameworks, creating a risk of forming a society of total control. The experience of individual states shows that public pressure can contribute to the implementation of restrictions on the collection and storage of biometric data, but at the federal level, these issues remain largely unregulated.
