Two nights ago the Dartmouth Select Board approved a test of ALPR (Automated License Plate Readers) at the request of Police Chief Brian Levesque. It only took 15 minutes from the start of the Flock Safety Corp. presentation to the final “Yes” vote by the Board.
I wish something with such implications for everyone’s privacy had not been decided so quickly by five people after a single sales pitch.
There are serious civil liberties issues with ALPR, the main being that there are insufficient laws in place to regulate its use. ALPR has been abused by rogue police for stalking ex-wives and shaking down undocumented workers and visitors to gay bars. It has also been abused by police and sheriff’s departments who have sold data to corporations for marketing purposes, shared it with anti-abortion groups and ICE, used it for racial profiling, or to even conduct illegal investigations.
Because of the many risks of abuse, there should first be guidelines, preferably state laws, spelling out precisely how ALPR can be used. And because ALPR is also tied into information systems in patrol vehicles (Flock provides this), and in some municipalities is integrated with CCTV and Axon systems (Flock provides this too), it is all the more important that residents and taxpayers get the full picture. Before Flock convinces the Select Board to buy even more gadgets.
Although Flock referenced a few technical details in a short PowerPoint presentation and provided some ballpark estimates, I have filed an information request with the Select Board for any information it may have received from the Chief and from Flock. The issue of long-term budgeting is critical. For example, Flock mentions in one of its brochures that the costs of a rollout in one town were paid for out of road maintenance funds, surprisingly not out of the police budget.
Besides fully understanding its civil liberties implications, residents should know what this shiny new tech, once fully rolled out, will end up costing taxpayers — at a time the town can't even pay its teachers what they're worth.
For more information on ALPR click here or here. You will find links to ALPR technology descriptions and its surprising (sometimes even shocking) police uses, a damning report by the California State Auditor, papers from numerous civil liberties and privacy rights organizations, and reports on abuses by several companies, including Flock, who provide the technology.
Hi David. Thanks for tracking this. They are most likely in violation of public procurement laws if they didn't get bids from multiple vendors before making a decision. See Massachusetts Ch. 30B.