Two Tennessee Republicans are sounding the alarm about what some fear to be a growing surveillance scheme utilizing automated license plate readers.
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and Rep. Tim Burchett are urging for action to be taken as Flock Safety’s cameras spread across the nation.
In a video shared on social media, Jacobs said he is calling for the Commission to “prohibit the use of Flock cameras and similar devices in our County.”
“For those of you who don’t know, these cameras, technically called Automated License Plate Readers, are motion activated and take a picture of every car which passes by,” he explained. “While License Plate Readers have been around for a while, because of AI and vastly increased networking and data retention capacities, these Flock cameras have capabilities not even imagined in the past.” Where older cameras only took an image of one’s license plate, Flock cameras store “distinguishing features of your vehicle: make, color, model, even bumper stickers.”
“That data is stored in a searchable database for sometimes up to a month or more, depending on the policies of that particular agency. When these cameras are deployed in large numbers, they create a network that can be used to track your movements,” Jacobs warned.
Burchett similarly said, “We gotta keep our country safe. What we can’t sacrifice is the freedoms, of course, that define us.”
The warnings come as Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) recently introduced a bill that requires law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before collecting surveillance data from Americans. The legislation, called the Protecting Rights in Video and Equipment Acquired Discovery (PRIVACY) Act, limits data retention, demands lists of intrusive tech be created, and prohibits the use of federal funds in installing such technologies.
The list of technologies is to include automated license plate readers, cameras that collect images of vehicle occupants and location coverage, long-range microphones, finger print detections, chemical scanners, and any other similar technologies.
