U.S. News: Cities' License-Plate Cameras Draw Pushback

“Troy, N.Y.,'s Victorian-era charms include brownstones, cast-iron storefronts and dozens of Tiffany stained-glass windows in churches.

 

But the city also has a 21st-century problem. Some residents say its artificial-intelligence-enabled street cameras are creating a surveillance state.

 

This spring, tensions boiled over at a city council meeting. Dozens of speakers railed against the mayor, police chief and company that provides the cameras for fostering a "dystopian hellscape." The cameras violate privacy rights, opponents said, and are ripe for misuse.

 

"As a Troy resident, I am appalled that our own mayor, our own administration, can essentially write off the rights of a significant portion of people who pay their salaries," one speaker said.

 

Mayor Carmella Mantello said the technology has helped reduce crime and solve homicides, robberies and narcotics cases, plus recover missing persons and stolen cars.

 

"Guess what?" she said. "Your iPhone is more of a surveillance camera than the license plate readers." She raised her own phone for emphasis, as residents holding signs grumbled that she was lying. The city council president banged the table for order.

 

Similar clashes are erupting nationwide as communities wrestle with privacy rights and the rapid spread of AI-enabled cameras. Often affixed inconspicuously to poles, they photograph the back of every passing vehicle and collect license plate data -- as well as color, make, model and features like a bumper sticker or a gun rack.

 

How these billions of photographs are used, stored and shared has spawned local fights, lawsuits and a national movement aimed at getting cities to cancel contracts with the biggest supplier, Atlanta-based Flock Safety.

 

Founded in 2017, Flock began by selling its solar-powered cameras, known as automated license plate readers, to neighborhood groups. It now dominates the market and has more than 12,000 customers, including police departments, retailers, schools and homeowners' associations.

 

Flock promotes its 20 billion license plate reads a month -- and ability to solve crimes across jurisdictions -- to prospective law-enforcement customers. Its cameras are in more than 6,000 communities.

 

About 50 cities and counties have canceled Flock contracts or deactivated cameras since early last year. The list includes liberal college towns like Cambridge, Mass. Conservatives also oppose government collection of personal data. Right-leaning Lockhart, Texas, and Warrenton, Va., rejected proposals to enter into contracts with Flock.

 

In May, Dayton, Ohio, suspended use of its Flock cameras and covered them with garbage bags after finding that out-of-state agencies had accessed the city's data for immigration searches. The police chief said a commander failed to implement data-sharing safeguards.

 

Flock CEO Garrett Langley, an electrical engineer, co-founded the company after break-ins in his Atlanta neighborhood. He said he supports state regulations and respects criticism and legal challenges from privacy groups.

 

"Clearly, there are some people who disagree with what we do," Langley said in an interview, while noting Flock cameras played a role in about a million arrests last year. "I don't go a day without meeting a police chief that says this is the most impactful tool they've ever seen."

 

Courts have found that license-plate readers don't violate privacy rights or Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, legal experts say.

 

But privacy-rights groups say that long-term, persistent tracking of a vehicle amounts to an illegal, warrantless search. Equally troubling, they say, is that data on every vehicle is collected. They want more states to limit the technology's use and the sharing and retention of data.

 

"We should be using what is essentially a mass surveillance technology only for the worst possible crimes," said Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.

 

People have attacked the company's cameras with saws, spray-painted the lenses or covered them with stickers. Websites like DeFlock, FlockHopper and HaveIBeenFlocked post camera locations and help residents elude them.

 

Flock blames the blowback on misunderstanding its technology and disinformation spread by opponents.

 

"People walk by it every day, and they don't understand what it actually does," said Max Weinstein, Flock's director of public trust and technology. He acknowledged a privately controlled database of vehicle data is "an objectively pretty scary concept," but noted Flock's guardrails and audit system.

 

Flock's ability to identify vehicles without a plate propelled its growth, Weinstein said. Last year, the Providence, R.I., police chief credited Flock cameras with helping track down the Brown University shooting suspect, who had changed license plates.

 

Cities choose whether to share data with other jurisdictions and how long to retain it. Flock's default setting is 30 days; after that, photos are deleted.

 

Flock said it doesn't contract with the Department of Homeland Security or assist with immigration enforcement. How Flock customers use camera data is up to them, the company said.

 

After Troy's city council tried to block Mayor Mantello from renewing Flock's contract, she declared an emergency to release the funds. The council sued her and is drafting regulation for the cameras. Both sides agreed to a 60-day pause so the city can gather information on how its 26 cameras have been used.

 

The Republican mayor and Democratic city council president Sue Steele said they hope to put the controversy to rest.

 

"We don't want to deprive law enforcement if this is indeed a helpful tool," said Steele. "Whether we find a middle ground remains to be seen."” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: Cities' License-Plate Cameras Draw Pushback. Maher, Kris.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 27 June 2026: A3.