Automated license plate reader

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) is a surveillance device which, as the name suggests, automatically scans vehicle license plates (or "tags") and saves a record of each one and when it was observed. By installing multiple ALPRs, the operator can keep a record of everyone who was in a specific area, at any specific time.

Uses

ALPRs have been used for decades, in very limited ways. Employers would sometimes use them to track the arrival and departure of their employees. Facilities with a greater than average concern about security would sometimes install them to keep a record of everyone who was visiting. Some establishments would also use them to automatically open gates for authorized people.

A Flock Falcon ALPR

However, this all changed in 2017. A man by the name of Garrett Langley became frustrated that the government did not have a record of everyone who was in the area of his home, after his car was broken into. He founded the company Flock Safety, which began deploying tens of thousands of ALPRs along public roadways. By 2026, Flock had installed over 175,000 ALPRs in public spaces. Rather than operating independently, as all previous ALRP systems had, Flock build an cellular internet uplink into each ALPR, and designed them to upload their captured data into a central database. Flock build AI-powered analytics, which analyze all of the ALPR scans, and exact a great deal of insight. With so many ALPRs deployed, people are forced to pass by these scanners regularly, as they move around throughout the day. This enables Flock to track everywhere each person goes, including correlate who each person was likely with, as any particular time. Based on where each person is going and at what time, Flock can also infer what each person has been doing. Additionally, Flock set up their ALPRs to capture more than just license plates. They scan and store bumper stickers, as well as over two dozen other identifying features. This infrastructure of networked ALPRs create a mass surveillance grid, which tracks everyone as they move from one place to another.

Flock's business model turned out to be very lucrative. Valued at $8.4 billion in 2026, Flock was drawing in customers from all across the US. Seeing this wealth, numerous other companies soon joined the market, competing with Flock. Axon, Rekor, Genetec, Leonardo, and even Motorola Solutions have developed competing systems of networked ALPRs, forming mass surveillance grids.

Mass surveillance market

From the perspective of mass surveillance, under the belief that the government should know nearly everything about every person, Flock and its competitors came at the right time. While government officials has previously been tracking people's movements (without search warrants) using GPS trackers, the courts put a stop to that. In the case of Jones v United States, the courts ruled that tracking a person requires a search warrant, which specifies the subject to be tracked, and the period of time when the tracking will occur. However, cell phones had become commonplace then, so officials began tracking citizens using cell phone data without warrants, instead. However, once again, the courts put a stop to this, in the case of Carpenter v. United States. They ruled again, that tracking a person's movements over time, using cell phone tracing, requires a search warrant. But just a year before this ruling, Flock had been founded, presenting officials with a new method of tracking people. Under the claim that "ALPRs are not illegal" and "this doesn't count as tracking," government agencies began signing on with Flock, in order to track the movements of citizens. The underlying purpose, tracking peoples' movements over time without search warrants, is illegal under the Fourth Amendment. However, the courts have not yet gotten the opportunity to rule specifically on the technology which Flock Safety is using, so this is being called legal by way of that loophole.