A Defense Of License Plate Readers

Should we dismantle a super-valuable law enforcement tool just because it’s theoretically possible to abuse it?

Tim Hsiao | September 14, 2026

On December 13, 2025, a gunman walked into an engineering building at Brown University, killed two students, wounded nine others, and disappeared.  The available images were poor, as the shooter’s face was concealed.  With little to work with, investigators initially detained the wrong man.  Two days later, with the gunman still unidentified, an MIT professor was murdered at his home outside Boston.

The break came when a citizen told police about a suspicious man and a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates.  Although this information was valuable, it was hardly enough to positively identify the suspect.  Using this information, investigators searched images collected by Flock Safety ALPRs (automated license plate readers).  Within minutes, they were able to reduce thousands of possible vehicles to just two.  Subsequent investigative work led them to the car and ultimately the gunman.  Police located him five days after the Brown shooting in a New Hampshire storage facility, where he had died by suicide.

Afterward, an independent review described the license plate data as “indispensable.”  The Providence Police Department has likewise said it was instrumental in identifying the suspect’s vehicle and locating him.  Without it, investigators would have possessed a general vehicle description with no simple way to determine which gray Nissan among countless others belonged to the killer.

Of course, this case by itself does not settle the debate about ALPRs.  But it does illustrate what is at stake.  ALPRs provide law enforcement with a powerful tool capable of turning fragmentary leads into the identification of a murderer.  The rush to abolish or “deflock” America misses the very real and wanted safety benefits that automated license plate readers offer to the public.

To be fair, there are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed. But these concerns can be addressed without getting rid of ALPR technology. 

A New Tool for an Old Police Function

Law enforcement operates on information.  Officers routinely consult computer-aided dispatch........

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