It's Time to Ban Mass Surveillance

Flock Safety, Axon, and other companies provide automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology that allows cameras to photograph passing vehicles and record information such as license plates, vehicle characteristics, location, and time. These records can then be stored and searched by law enforcement. Networks of ALPR cameras have expanded rapidly across the United States, creating the ability to search vehicle sightings across large geographic areas.

These systems pose a serious threat to anonymity and privacy because they can turn ordinary driving into a record of a person's movements. Each time a vehicle passes an ALPR camera, its location and time can be recorded, allowing authorities with access to search where that vehicle has been seen over time. Those records can reveal sensitive patterns, including visits to medical facilities, places of worship, political gatherings, or personal relationships, without the driver ever knowing they were being tracked.

From a civil liberties standpoint, these cameras raise serious Fourth Amendment concerns by enabling warrantless, long-term location tracking that resembles the surveillance the Supreme Court has previously limited. The technology chills free speech, assembly, and freedom of movement, as people may avoid protests, clinics, or certain neighborhoods for fear of being monitored. Critics highlight risks of abuse, mission creep into non-criminal matters, and discriminatory use, turning everyday public roads into a nationwide surveillance grid that undermines core civil liberties and freedoms.

Some cities have successfully removed Flock cameras after vocal public opposition. However, with more than 19,000 incorporated cities, towns, villages, and boroughs across the United States, fighting mass surveillance one municipality at a time is an enormous challenge.

By focusing efforts at the state level, we reduce the challenge from 19,000+ individual battles to just 50. Statewide legislation creates a uniform, comprehensive solution that protects every community, prevents neighboring cities from simply installing more cameras, and sends a clear message that mass surveillance has no place in a free society.

This approach is more strategic, scalable, and effective. It allows citizens to concentrate resources, coordinate advocacy, and achieve lasting impact rather than fighting endless local skirmishes.

We call on our state legislatures to uphold our constitutionally protected Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

We call on state lawmakers to prohibit the use of Flock, Axon, and similar mass-surveillance camera networks, and to require the removal of existing systems from our communities.

Our movements should not be continuously tracked, recorded, and stored in searchable databases simply because we travel on public roads. Protect our privacy, restore our liberties, and keep our states free from mass surveillance.