A police officer uses the Flock Safety license plate reading system. Many left-leaning states and cities are trying to protect their residents’ personal information as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration, but a growing number of conservative lawmakers also want to limit the employ of surveillance technologies. (Photo courtesy of Flock Safety)
As part of its deportation efforts, the Trump administration has ordered states to hand over personal information from voter rolls, driver’s license records and programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.
At the same time, the administration is trying to consolidate the pieces of personal information stored in various federal agencies, creating a single treasure trove of information about people living in the United States.
Many left-leaning states and cities are trying to protect their residents’ personal information in the face of harsh immigration policies. But a growing number of conservative lawmakers also want to limit the employ of surveillance technologies such as automatic license plate readers, which can be used to identify and track people.
Conservative-led states such as Arkansas, Idaho And Montana passed laws last year aimed at protecting personal information collected through license plate readers and other means. They joined at least five left-leaning parties States — Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Washington — which specifically denied U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to their driver’s license records.
In addition, democratically run cities in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, fresh York, North Carolina, Texas And Washington terminated their contracts with Flock Safety last year largest provider the license plate reader in the USA
The Trump administration’s goal is to create a “surveillance network across the country,” said William Owen, communications director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that advocates for stronger privacy laws.
We are entering an increasingly dystopian era of high-tech surveillance.
– William Owen, communications director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
“We are entering an increasingly dystopian era of high-tech surveillance,” Owen said. Sharing information between different levels of government, he said, “has allowed ICE to circumvent sanctuary laws and co-opt local police databases and surveillance tools, including license plate readers, facial recognition and other technologies.”
A fresh law in Montana prohibits government agencies from accessing electronic communications and related materials without authorization. Republican Senator Daniel Emrich, the law’s author, said: “The most important thing on which our entire justice system is based is the principle against unlawful searches and seizures” – the right enshrined in the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.
“It is difficult to find people who are constitutionally entrenched and understand the need to keep Fourth Amendment rights intact at all times and for all reasons — with minimal or no exceptions,” Emrich said in an interview.
ICE did not respond to Stateline’s requests for comment.
Automated license plate readers
Recently, cities and states have been particularly concerned about the employ of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), which are high-speed cameras and computer systems that capture license plate information from passing vehicles. These readers sit on police cars and streetlights or can be hidden in construction bins and utility poles.
Some cameras collect data that is stored in databases for years, leading to an raise Issue among data protection advocates. One report from the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive think tank at New York University, found that the data could be vulnerable to hacking. Different authorities have different policies regarding how long data is retained. after to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a law enforcement advocacy group.
Proponents of the technology, including many in law enforcement, say the technology is a powerful tool for tracking criminal suspects.
Flock Safety says it has cameras in more than 5,000 communities and is connected to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies in 49 states. The company says its cameras read more than 20 billion license plates every month. It collects the data and passes it on to police authorities, who employ the information to locate people.
Holly Beilin, a spokeswoman for Flock Safety, told Stateline that while there are local police departments that may work with ICE, the company does not have a contractual relationship with the agency. Beilin also said that many liberal and even sanctuary cities continue to sign contracts with Flock Safety. She noted that the cameras have been used to solve some high-profile crimes, including identifying and leading police to the man who committed the crime Brown University shooting and killed an MIT professor overdue last year.
“Governments and cities are very capable of using this technology in a way that is consistent with their values, so they don’t have to share data outside of the state,” Beilin said.
Refusal of data employ
But critics like that American Civil Liberties Unionsay that Flock Safety’s cameras not only “give even the police chief of the smallest city access to an enormously powerful driver monitoring tool,” but that the data is also used by ICE. A news agency, 404 mediaobtained records of these searches and found that many of them were conducted by local officials on behalf of ICE.
Last spring, the Denver City Council voted unanimously to terminate its contract with Flock Safety, but Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston voted unilaterally to do so extended the contract in October, saying the technology was a useful tool in fighting crime.
The ACLU of Colorado has done this vehemently defied the camerassaid last August that Denver Police Department audit logs show more than 1,400 ICE searches have been conducted since June 2024.
“The discussion has really become more intense right now because of the federal landscape and the focus not only on immigrants and the functionality of ICE, but also on the side of trying to really reduce or eliminate protections around access to reproductive care and gender-affirming care,” says Anaya Robinson, public policy director at the ACLU of Colorado.
“If we erode rights and access for a particular community, it is only a matter of time before that erosion affects other communities.”
Jimmy Monto, a Democratic city councilman in Syracuse, New York, led the charge to terminate Flock Safety’s contract in his city.
“Syracuse has a very large immigrant population, a very large new American population, refugees who have been resettled here and resettled. So it’s a very sensitive issue,” Monto said, adding that license plate readers allow anyone who checks the data to determine a person’s immigration status without a warrant.
“When we contract with someone to collect data on citizens living in a city, we have to focus very closely on what they’re doing while also giving police departments the tools they need to solve murders as well, right?” Monto said.
“If license plate readers are helpful in that way, I think the scope is right. But we need to make sure that’s what we’re using them for and that the companies we contract with are acting in good faith.”
Emrich, the Montana lawmaker, said everyone should care about protecting constitutional privacy rights, regardless of their political views.
“If the government acquires data in violation of constitutional rights, it could violate a whole range of individuals’ constitutional rights in order to prosecute those who may or may not be protected by those same constitutional rights,” he said.
Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at shatlani@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by State borderwhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes West Virginia Watch, and is a 501c(3) public charity supported by grants and a coalition of donors.
