Big Brother Knows Where You Are! (Part II)

Earlier in the month, I wrote about how they are building databases of interior photos of homes so that they can identify residences from photos of their interiors. Well, not only are they doing that, but ALPR cameras are also building a database of your bumper stickers!

What are Flock cameras, other ALPRs looking for?

Fox 59

by: Addy Bink, Alix Martichoux

Sep 22, 2026

Flock cameras, automated license plate readers (ALPRs), and other similar devices have attracted backlash from around the country in recent months. 

While Flock may be the name that immediately comes to mind for you when you hear of ALPRs, they aren’t the only technology available, nor the first of their kind.

They all, however, are generally looking for the same information. That includes a vehicle’s license plate and its make, model, and color. 

Flock claims its readers can “capture vehicles traveling up to 100 MPH, day and night, and up to 75 ft away.” Its technology can also categorize vehicles based on whether it is a resident or non-resident vehicle, if it has a temporary or standard plate, and if there is damage or alterations, like a broken taillight.

[...]

Motorola Solutions, which comprises about 5 percent of the ALPR locations tracked by DeFlock, says its technology can identify “accessories and even unique vehicle features like damage or bumper stickers.”

You know that bumper sticker you have criticizing Trump... it is in their database. This car, owned by this driver... "is an enemy of the state!" They could search a database of all cars in the area of an ICE protest for anti-Trump bumper stickers.

News Nation writes;

The cameras passively collect data on cars that pass by, putting all that information – which goes beyond license plates and can include details like a car’s bumper stickers – into a searchable database. The companies have different default policies on how long data is stored and how they use AI tools to search their databases.

See the key is "searchable databases!" In another Fox News article they write...

Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., introduced a bill Thursday that would ban ALPR searches targeting political or religious messages on vehicles, require warrants for most searches, mandate that records be deleted within 24 hours and prohibit vendors from selling or sharing location data.

"When you consider that these systems track everything that you do, where you work, where your kids go to school, where you even go to church, I think it's pretty easy to understand why people are concerned," Harrigan told Fox News Digital. 

Yeah, that puts it mildly. Especially when you have an authoritarian leader who has no problem using the government for his personal vendettas.

The ACLU of Iowa writes;

Myth: If you’re not doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t be worried about being tracked by ALPRs.

Reality: Our concern about ALPRs is not that they are being used to, say, catch a car thief (although we are concerned when they improperly label an innocent person as a car thief). Our concern is that in the process of tracking down a legitimate car thief, the government is vastly overreaching and creating a massive national database that tracks all of us all day long.

In one city, a resident discovered that on average, his city’s ALPR system (operated by Flock Safety) was tracking him four times a day. That means law enforcement nationwide can track him everywhere he went, including if he had gone to a medical clinic, drag performance, substance abuse recovery meeting, protest, gun show, etc. Even though you’re doing nothing wrong by visiting any of these, in the wrong hands, this information could be used to target you or people you associate with.

And those "wrong hands" are becoming more and more the Trump administration!

We can’t trust every government agency nationwide to use this data in a constitutional way. There are countless reports of ALPR databases – especially Flock databases – being misused. In a growing number of cases, police are using the database to track their romantic partners. They’ve also used it to track a woman who had an abortion. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also used ALPR data to track people down in order to deport them.

Okay... when I was volunteering at a Pride Center, they were being harassed and vandalized. The city police department asked if they could monitor our security cameras. When I heard that, I thought, "What a great worm to dangle in front of them." You want to stop the vandals? Let us look through your cameras—at your medical patients, at all your LGBTQ+ clients, let us look at everyone coming to your support groups! They said no. But how many say yes? 

Myth: License plates are in public view, so it’s not a problem for ALPR cameras to take pictures of them.

Reality: It’s true that if you’re driving or parked in a public space, your license plate is in public view. Anyone can look at it and take a picture. ALPRs, however, take “public view” and put it on steroids. They take thousands of images a minute and pour them into a massive database for anyone with access for it to see. Suddenly your license plate is in “public view” in Texas and Florida and everywhere else, and not just in real time, but for as long as the data is retained.

Not only that, but they keep the data. On January 5th, 2024, you were in a neighborhood where a known ____ (fill in the blank) lived—what were you doing there?

The fact that it is in a searchable database is the scary part. In the old days of cop shows, the robbery victim had to check VCR tapes; now, it is just a few clicks away.

Data centers have more than your photos of Puff & Spot and all your wild parties; they are holding all the ALPR photos and all the other "crap" that a police state needs!