Leonardo ELSAG

A roadside ELSAG ALPR

Leonardo ELSAG is a surveillance technology company offering mass surveillance systems. They have a manufacturing site Greensboro, NC (4221 Tudor Lane) and a software engineering site in Brewster, NY. They utilize ALPR-based vehicle tracing, as well as wireless radio-based fingerprinting of individuals and vehicles.

Leonardo's ELSAG Mobile Plate Hunter is designed to be mounted on a vehicle. It us used by law enforcement agencies, as well as private companies, to automatically scan and record license plates at a large scale. Leonardo has expanded its offerings beyond this, to also include fixed options. From innocuous-looking video cameras, to solar-powered roadside scanners, Leonardo ELSAG tries to provide consistent awareness of every vehicle's location. They also provide services for the collection of tolls and parking fees. Although originally more focused on just collecting license plate numbers and comparing them to watch lists, "Leonardo/ELSAG ALPR Systems invested in making a robust data analytical tool to mine information that is useful to law enforcement but could also play a role in other security applications."

Leonardo ELSAG Also offers a system called SignalTrace, which attempts to uniquely identify each person based on wireless signals from their cell phones, wireless sound devices, tracker tags, other Bluetooth signals, and even things like their car's tire pressure monitors.

Plate Hunter mobile scanner

History

The company Leonardo began its story in 2004, as a join venture between Finmeccanica and Remington Arms. Their goal was to develop, create, and deploy automatic license plate recognition systems for United States market. By 2008, Remington had withdrawn from the venture, and under the name ELSAG North America LLC., it was a subsidiary of Finmeccanica.

Legal and Privacy issues

Although Leonardo ELSAG began is a fairly simple ALPR system for live vehicle identification, they have expanded into tracking vehicles over time, developing a "robust data analytical tool to mine information." This can provide many insights into the personal lives of everyone under this surveillance, and goes against the fourth amendment to the U.S. constitution.

AI-powered mass surveillance which Leonardo ELSAG now offers, can be useful. However, it comes with some significant legal and ethical problems. The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution provides strong protections against "unreasonable searches and seizures," without a legal warrant, which clearly defines who is being subjected to a search, what place will be searched, and the duration of the search. It also needs to be signed by a judge. Based on legal precedent, tracking the movements of a person over time, is a form of a search, which therefore requires a specific and limited search warrant.

Unfortunately, these systems are also prone to abuse. There have been many cases of those with access to unrestricted tracing data, using it to stalk former romantic partners,, groups of children, and others.

See also

• ELSAG SignalTrace
• Flock Safety
• Axon Enterprise
• Motorola Solutions
• Rekor Systems
• BusPatrol
• Verkada