What the Flock! How One Company And Its ALPRs Enable Warrantless Surveillance

We are in uncharted Big Brother territory.

Janet Levy | August 17, 2026

Six years ago, police in Aurora, CO, drew weapons on Brittney Gillian, a black woman, and four minors—her sister, daughter, and two nieces, ages 17 to six years—forced them to the hot asphalt in a parking lot, handcuffed them, and turned their “Sunday fun day” outing into a nightmare. The officers had misidentified Gillian’s SUV as stolen, matching the plates but not waiting to cross-check the description of the vehicle the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) network alerted them to: an out-of-state motorcycle.

The Aurora police apologized and, three years later, paid Gillian and the others $1.9 million in a civil rights settlement, but the officers were not charged. Their heavy-handed action, perhaps a genuine error, was found to be in keeping with standard procedure. That does not excuse the trauma Gillian and the children suffered. And compensation in one case does not lessen the extent to which ALPRs can be—and have been—used in violation of citizens’ privacy and liberty.

With free access to ALPR data, police officers are predictably the biggest abusers. At least 50 officers nationwide have faced charges for accessing ALPR networks for personal reasons—for example, to stalk romantic interests.

A Milwaukee police officer used his department’s network to track a partner and one of her exes 179 times.

A Florida officer was charged with stalking for running the plates of vehicles owned by his then-girlfriend and her family more than 100 times over seven months.

Texas deputies scoured footage from 83,000 cameras nationwide to track a woman who had self-administered an abortion and consulted prosecutors about charging her under the state’s abortion ban. They claimed she was “missing” after her friend reported her and, having seen the aborted fetus, were concerned she might bleed to death. This was later disproved. But the larger question is whether police in a no-abortion state can use the network to locate an abortion suspect in states where abortion is a legal right.

There are serious ethical issues. As of early August, more than 128,900 ALRPs are in use across 49 states, a number that is rapidly growing, and........

© American Thinker