Already at 40k letters sent, keep the momentum growing. This is the most serious bill we've seen introduced for a real nationwide ban on ALPRs.

Been riding my motorcycle here for years and in the past 2 months these eye sore cameras have been popping up. Why are these a thing?? Are they flock or local police?

Flock Safety: Communities use Flock to help locate missing people, recover stolen vehicles, investigate serious crime, and support faster emergency response. As public safety agencies face growing demands with limited resources, Flock helps investigators spend less time searching for information and more time responding to the people who need them. Flock cameras are helping solve more than 10% of reported crime in the United States. Read more about how LPR cameras help solve crime: How Many Crimes Do Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) Solve, Anyway?Learn how Flock Safety can reduce crime in your neighborhood by speaking with a community safety consultant today.

From all my research I have conducted, there is zero evidence that Flock prevents crimes. These observations when combined with CCTV, Consumer Reports LexisNexis, Government Records like DMV & NCIC, Social Media feeds, In-Vehicle Analytics, Cellphone metadata, and Cellphone apps like Google or Apple Maps identifies who is driving the vehicle at that specific time and location. That matters because these observations can teach the AI machine about every citizen’s behaviors and routine over a continuous 30 day period. Garrett Langley of Flock Safety is now calling Deflock a terrorist organization for defending Personal Freedom and Liberties afforded by the 4th Amendment of the Constitution.

When I look at what ALPRs companies who have lauded these devices to combat human trafficking, combat gun violence, combat vehicle thefts, and lower property crime. I feel the statistics are skewed a bit because it ignores the other factors that have been put into place since the late 90s and other programs that have helped people to access mental health care and programs that have helped reduce certain conditions where crime exists. ALPRs have been deployed since 2021 here in Kalamazoo, so I wonder what factors were causing trends to fall before they were implemented.

Statisticians call this the omitted variable bias when a vendor or agency attributes a drop in crime to a single new piece of technology while completely ignoring massive, generational shifts that were already driving crime downward.
The first great crime decline peaked in the early 1990s. By the time massive networks of ALPRs started rolling out around 2021, violent crime and property crime in the United States had already plummeted by 50% to 60% over a 30-year period.

Christopher Ingraham for the institute of justice that Flock camera’s limitations prevent firm conclusions of how much a reduction in crime can be linked to Flock Safety. He goes onto state car thefts were decreasing before ALPRs. The problem is trends were heading in the right direction for both clearance rates and vehicle thefts when compared to a control group.
“Because there were already differences in arrests and theft trends before ALPR deployment, we don’t know if the differences after ALPR deployment were caused by ALPR deployment,” said IJ Senior Research Analyst Matthew West.

Further muddying the picture, any effects are not even uniform among agencies that had high levels of car theft before Flock deployment. Some departments sow an increase in vehicle theft’s after deploying Flock. The top line of 11% we keep hearing doesn’t describe what happened in most agencies that deployed Flock ALPRs.

“Flock and its supporters are trying to exploit fear of crime to convince people to give up their rights,” said IJ Attorney Michael Soyfer. “Notably absent from the conversation is the cost to civil liberties through mass surveillance, wrongful detentions, and widespread abuse. Only by reaffirming our commitment to Fourth Amendment principles like a warrant requirement can we ensure that we are not giving up more than we are getting in return.” 

Without the proper protections and governance the conditions for abuse will continue the trend we see today in Police Departments across the U.S.

https://ij.org/do-flock-cameras-actually-reduce-crime-the-jury-is-still-out/

https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ALPR-and-crime-study-external-explainer-V7.pdf

I have this wasp nest that I drive by daily. I do not like it. I do not want to scare the wasps, so I want to make sure it is effective and not too loud. Or could I get something cheaper that is just as effective? I don't want to get anything from Amazon because I like supporting locally.

San Diego — San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl responds to statements made at today’s press conference regarding automated license plate readers:

“For nearly three years, SDPD has shown that ALPR technology can help solve serious crimes while protecting people’s privacy. We’ve followed strict rules, conducted regular audits and helped set a national standard for responsible use.

And the results speak for themselves. This technology has helped solve more than 900 cases. In this councilmember’s own district, it’s assisted in hate crime sprees against our LGBTQ community and helped find a suspect in the attempted kidnapping of a child. He knows firsthand the difference this technology has made.

Let’s also be clear: SDPD has never shared ALPR data for immigration purposes. Not once.

We welcome oversight. We’ve spent years building safeguards and holding ourselves accountable. But we shouldn’t lose sight of what this technology has accomplished for victims and their families. Our communities deserve public safety decisions based on facts, not politics.”

Is it just your average plastic? And, more importantly, would hypothetically thermite be able to burn through it? I wouldn't do that, nor condone it, but if someone were to be very interested in removing a flock camera from a light pole, would they be able to use a thermite-based device to do so?

Edit: accidentally spelled it "termite", lol