More than two dozen law enforcement officials, including sworn officers and civilian staff members, have been accused of misusing automated license plate reader cameras (ALPRs) and their data in Georgia in recent months.
Lawmakers Seek Federal Guardrails
Flock Safety, one of the best-known camera operators, is based in Atlanta. Georgia has tens of thousands of license plate reader cameras, while Atlanta is one of the most surveilled cities in the country.
Senators Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., said misuse of ALPRs had reached a dangerous level and requires Department of Justice intervention.
On Sept. 21, the senators wrote a bipartisan letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche calling on the department to provide guidance to state and local law enforcement agencies on preventing ALPR misuse and to put additional guardrails in place.
“There’s nothing more important than feeling safe and secure in your own neighborhood. That’s why I’m deeply concerned about reports of law enforcement officers misusing (ALPR) systems and using them against Georgians who have done nothing wrong,” Warnock told USA TODAY. “Attorney General Blanche needs to take these concerns seriously and provide some strong guidelines for law enforcement agencies that intend to use ALPR systems in the communities they serve.”
How License Plate Reader Data Is Stored and Shared
According to the letter, reviewed by USA TODAY, 140,000 people use Flock cameras each month across all but one U.S. state. Those users have access to more than 120,000 cameras nationwide, making it the largest network in the country.
Individual jurisdictions can decide who may access their Flock data, although many share it with neighboring agencies to aid investigations. Flock Safety recently changed its default data-retention timeline from 30 days to seven days, but some data can still be held for years when used in investigations, according to the letter.
Law enforcement agencies around the country use ALPR systems for legitimate public safety purposes, including investigating violent crime and locating missing or abducted people. But the senators wrote that misuse undermines public confidence and asked the DOJ to ensure compliance with federal statutes and regulations.
The senators identified 20 cases of law enforcement officers arrested for ALPR misuse in Georgia and 50 officers across the country charged with or accused of unauthorized searches. In some cases, officials allegedly used the systems to stalk and harass civilians.
What the Senators Asked the DOJ
Warnock and Britt asked Blanche and the DOJ to answer six questions by Oct. 21:
- How much DOJ funding has been used to purchase ALPR systems?
- Does the DOJ oversee grants to address misuse on federally funded ALPR systems?
- Does the DOJ provide training or best practices when DOJ funding is used to purchase ALPR systems?
- What are the DOJ’s policies on data use from ALPR systems used by federal agencies?
- Is the DOJ aware of misuse of ALPR systems from federally funded programs, and what actions does it take?
- Has the DOJ audited or will it audit federal law enforcement agencies that use ALPR systems to identify misuse?
“Georgians are seeing ALPR systems pop up across their neighborhoods and communities, having little to no knowledge of how the data is being collected or used by law enforcement,” Warnock told USA TODAY. “The lack of guardrails puts people in danger from bad actors, and I’m especially alarmed to see women stalked by abusers. I plan to continue my bipartisan effort to push for more oversight over the use of ALPR systems.”
Flock Safety Reports on Security Testing
The letter was sent one day before Flock Safety released the results of an independent penetration test intended to check whether its data was secure from outside actors.
“Flock has an advanced cybersecurity program, and customers and the public should expect that from the public safety technology industry, along with transparency about what independent testing finds,” Chris Castaldo, Flock’s chief information security officer, said in a Sept. 22 statement. “Publishing the results of that testing, including what is still in progress, demonstrates that commitment in practice. We gave Bishop Fox broad access to our systems specifically to make the assessment more rigorous, not easier to pass.”
Castaldo called the test a continuous practice and a benchmark for future safety decisions. No major security breaches were identified, and multiple smaller security concerns were addressed.
Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA TODAY’s Deep South Connect team. Contact information has been omitted.
Reporting by Irene Wright, USA TODAY. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.
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