ARLINGTON, Va.—Today, the Institute for Justice (IJ) applauds the village of Scarsdale, New York for terminating its contract with the automated license plate reader (ALPR) company Flock Safety. The decision comes after more than 400 members of the community signed a petition urging the city to end the contract.
“I am very grateful to the over 450 Scarsdale residents who signed the petition,” said Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez, one of the Scarsdale residents who spearheaded the petition. “Matters as important as surveillance technology should always be placed on municipal agendas and publicized so that residents have an opportunity to provide their views.”
“The village made the right call in canceling the Flock contract and I respect that,” said Scarsdale resident Josh Frankel, who was also closely involved with the petition. “Should this issue arise again, I’d hope the board will seek public input beforehand, and, if warranted, then proceed with a rigorous competitive bidding and vetting process.”
Thousands of communities around the United States have partnered with private companies to install ALPR cameras on their roads. Unlike red-light cameras or speed cameras that are triggered by specific violations, these cameras photograph every vehicle that drives by and can use artificial intelligence to create a profile with identifying information that then gets stored in a massive database. Once that happens, officials can search the database for any vehicle they wish, all without a warrant. And departments around the country are automatically sharing data with each other, making it simple for police anywhere to track drivers’ movements. All of this arbitrary discretion threatens people’s privacy, security, and freedom of movement by creating an atmosphere where everyone knows they are being watched and tracked whenever they hit the road.
The Guardian reported earlier this year that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers had accessed ALPR data in Westchester County, the county Scarsdale is located in, even though the county has laws limited cooperation with the federal government.
IJ—which has a federal lawsuit against the city of Norfolk, Virginia over its use of more than 170 ALPR cameras—learned about the issue in Scarsdale after Mayra and Josh reached out to express their concerns with the village’s ALPR contract.
“The village’s decision to cancel its contract with Flock shows the importance of grassroots activism,” said IJ Special Projects Coordinator Tom Solomon. “Residents of Scarsdale made it clear they did not want to be subjected to unconstitutional, warrantless, and frankly unnecessary surveillance. We’re thrilled that Mayra, Josh and all other Scarsdale residents will now be free from this warrantless surveillance, and we applaud the village for listening.”
In addition to the ongoing lawsuit in Norfolk, IJ recently convinced officials in an Arkansas city to remove an ALPR camera that was placed directly in front of an innocent family’s home. Every time a vehicle drove by that family’s home, the camera snapped a picture which included the family’s front yard and driveway. The camera also captured every time the family left the house or arrived home. These are all part of IJ’s Plate Privacy Project, which aims to protect against this type of warrantless surveillance.