More than two dozen law enforcement officials, both sworn officers and civilian staff members, have been accused of misusing and abusing automated license plate reader cameras (ALPRs) and their data in the state of Georgia in recent months.
The most well-known camera operator, Flock Safety, is based in Atlanta and was founded by graduates of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a connection that caused the city to be an early adopter of the technology. Now, Atlanta is one of the most surveilled cities in the country, and Georgia is ground zero for license plate reader cameras with tens of thousands of cameras in operation across the Peach State.
For Senators Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Katie Britt (R-AL), misuse of ALPRs had reached a dangerous level, and one that requires action and intervention from the Department of Justice.
On Sept. 21, the two senators wrote a bipartisan letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche calling on the department to “provide guidance to state and local law enforcement agencies on how they can best prevent the misuse of ALPR technology,” and asked for additional guardrails to be put in place.
“There’s nothing more important than feeling safe and secure in your own neighborhood. That’s why I’m deeply concerned about reports of law enforcement officers misusing (ALPR) systems and using them against Georgians who have done nothing wrong,” Warnock told USA TODAY. “Attorney General Blanche needs to take these concerns seriously and provide some strong guidelines for law enforcement agencies that intend to use ALPR systems in the communities they serve.”
Warnock, Britt call on DOJ for federal guardrails
According to the letter, reviewed by USA TODAY, there are 140,000 monthly active users of Flock cameras across all but one U.S. state. These users have access to more than 120,000 cameras nationwide as the largest network in the country.
Individual jurisdictions are able to decide who is allowed to access their Flock data, according the recent changes within the company, though many still choose to share their data with other neighboring agencies to aid in investigations. Flock Safety recently changed their default data retention timeline from 30 days to 7 days, but some data can be still be held for years when used in investigations, according to the letter.
“While law enforcement agencies around the country appropriately use ALPR for legitimate public safety purposes including the investigation of violent crime and the location and recovery of missing and abducted persons, misuse of these systems undermines the public’s confidence in the technology. We, therefore, write to request information about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) funding and oversight of such systems to prevent such misuse and ensure compliance with applicable federal statutes and regulations,” Warnock and Britt wrote in the letter.
The senators identified 20 cases of law enforcement officers arrested for ALPR misuse in Georgia, and a total of 50 officers across the country who have been charged with, or accused of, using the data systems for unauthorized searches, in some cases stalking and harassing the civilians they serve.
Warnock and Britt asked Blanche and the DOJ to answer a series of questions by Oct. 21:
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How much funding from the DOJ has been used to purchase ALPR systems?
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Does the DOJ have oversight over these grants to address misuse on federally funded ALPR systems?
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Does the DOJ provide any training or best practices when DOJ funding is used to purchase ALPR systems?
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What are the DOJ’s policies on data use from ALPR systems when used by federal agencies?
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Is the DOJ aware of misuse of ALPR systems from federally-funded programs, and if so, what actions does the DOJ take?
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Has and will the DOJ audit federal law enforcement agencies that use ALPR systems to identify misuse?
“Georgians are seeing ALPR systems pop up across their neighborhoods and communities, having little to no knowledge of how the data is being collected or used by law enforcement,” Warnock told USA TODAY. “The lack of guardrails puts people in danger from bad actors, and I’m especially alarmed to see women stalked by abusers. I plan to continue my bipartisan effort to push for more oversight over the use of ALPR systems.”
Flock Safety releases independent ‘penetration test’
The letter was sent just one day before Flock Safety released the results of an independent “penetration test,” meant to check whether data collected by the company was truly safe and secure from outside actors.
“Flock has an advanced cybersecurity program, and customers and the public should expect that from the public safety technology industry, along with transparency about what independent testing finds,” Chris Castaldo, Flock’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) said in a Sept. 22 statement. “Publishing the results of that testing, including what is still in progress, demonstrates that commitment in practice. We gave Bishop Fox broad access to our systems specifically to make the assessment more rigorous, not easier to pass.”
Castaldo called the test a “continuous practice” and a “benchmark” to be used in future company safety decisions.
No major security breaches were identified, and multiple remediation actions for smaller security concerns were addressed.
Flock founder Garrett Langley called recent police arrests “disappointing,” in previous comments, but ultimately said arrests show that the internal audit tools instituted by Flock were working and law enforcement was being held accountable.
Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GA senator questions DOJ over license plate reader camera misuse cases
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