Policy · 7h ago
EFF said its analysis of Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) logs shows officers nationwide running large volumes of location searches with reasons like “idk,” “LOL,” and other obvious placeholders. One Goshen Police Department search on May 7, 2025 reached 6,474 ALPR networks covering 82,413 cameras.
The problem is not that the systems failed to log access; it is that the reason field is self-attested. Officers can type a justification, but the platform does not verify that it is true, so an audit trail can show a reason without showing lawful cause. That makes the log useful for recording activity and weak as proof that the access was justified.
For departments and oversight teams that rely on vendor logs to police themselves, the exposure is broader than one bad query: the movement history itself becomes searchable at scale under paperwork that may be meaningless. If ALPR data sits behind a thin reason box and no warrant requirement, the trust gap lives in the review process, not just the search records.
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The High Crime of “LMAO”: How Cops Are Treating Mass Surveillance As a Joke
With no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone’s location information.
Part of the PlainSec briefing for 2026-09-14