On ALPRs and Why You Should Worry Especially If You've Done Nothing Wrong

I've sat in on a number of public meetings about ALPRs (Automated License Plate Readers) over the last several weeks, and one line that keeps coming up from the pro-ALPR side is "Well, if you don't do anything wrong you've got nothing to worry about."

I'm sorry that you have the critical thinking capacity of a tapeworm, but don't force your idiocy on the rest of us.

The people that "do nothing wrong" are precisely the ones who should worry most--most marginalized people just exist, and that existence is enough of a threat to the status quo to label them a threat.

Looking at some of the data pulled from PRAs (Public Records Act requests), it's sickening how this ALPR technology is obviously being used as a means of mass surveillance. I looked at 4 months of data for the City of Saratoga, from March 1 to June 30 of 2024. Riverside County Sheriffs Department didn't check their cameras until June 5th. Over the next few weeks, that office searched Saratoga's cameras over 14,000 times--thousands more than the next highest, which had been searching since March. They were oftentimes running searches of all the networks in California multiple times per minute... at 3 in the morning....

So, we're talking about automated scripts running overnight just checking on all vehicles spotted by every ALPR in the state, multiple times per minute, to... what? My guess is to store it in a database somewhere and use for detailing routine routes. But who knows?

The point is--if you've done nothing wrong, then you should absolutely be worried, because whatever do you need to be watched for? Recorded, noted, jotted down, and filed in a searchable database to track your daily routine over the course of years. Does that sound like a good use of your tax dollars? Does that honestly make you feel safer?