Bipartisan Amendment Could End Police Licensing Across the World

US lawmakers prepare to introduce an amendment Thursday at a House committee meeting that would prohibit anyone who receives road money from using it automatic license plate reader for any reason other than tolling—a far-reaching ban that, if implemented, would completely eliminate state and local ALPR programs in the United States.

The amendment, first obtained by WIRED, is sponsored by Representative Scott Perry, a member of the Pennsylvania Republican and Freedom Caucus, and Representative Jesús “Chuy” García, a progressive from Illinois whose state has been doing well. to be shiny in the global fight against ALPR misuse.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will file a preliminary budget — $580 billion, to approve five years of federal programs — at 10 a.m. ET Thursday.

Neither Perry nor García’s offices immediately responded to WIRED’s request for comment.

The amendment contains one sentence: “A recipient under Title 23, United States Code, may not employ licensed accountants for any purpose other than payment.”

The change is short, but the reach can be huge. Title 23 funds about a quarter of all public roads in the US, including many state and county roads and many city roads where ALPR cameras are ubiquitous. Placing a technology ban would force any state, county, or federal government that receives federal highway money (preferably all) to remove the cameras or change their use by paying for them themselves.

Supporters of the change, Perry and García, represent the opposite side of the House’s proposals but have faced concerns that have been growing in the legislatures and city halls in the US because ALPR networks have quietly become the streets of America.

ALPR cameras – mounted on poles, at crosswalks, traffic signs, and police patrols – record every passing license, record times and locations, and enter the information into a search engine shared by agencies and authorities.

In Illinois, where García’s district is located, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced last August that. audit and his office found the Flock Group—an Atlanta-based company that operates the nation’s largest ALPR network—violated state law by providing US Customs and Border Protection with access to Illinois ALPR data. Giannoulias ordered the company to withdraw access to the government.

Flock said at the time that it would suspend pilots nationwide, something the company had previously denied existed. what Flock CEO and founder Garrett Langley said it was a public statement that “inadvertently gave wrong information.”

Flock did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Privacy advocates have long warned that the combination of license plates acts as a form of unauthorized surveillance. New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice has written about integration of ALPR feeds into police data integration systems which combines plate data with monitoring and social control. And the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital nonprofit, has it he wrote a lot about police abuseincluding the previous targeting of mosques and the uneven deployment of technology in low-income areas.

The court documents that the EFF is was reported by 404 Media last year it was revealed that a Texas sheriff’s deputy had asked Flock across the country – about 88,000 cameras at the time – to follow a woman because, he wrote, she had “had an abortion.”

“Public cameras are easily abused and have already been banned in many cities across the country because they fail to protect our information,” said Hajar Hammado, senior policy advisor at Demand Progress, who believes the Perry-García amendment is “wise” and says the country has turned into a “mass surveillance dystopia”.