The California city of Oakland has approved a plan to install 480 surveillance cameras equipped with automatic license plate readers in an effort to fight rising crime in the city. Most of the cameras, 290, will be deployed inside the city while the remaining 180 will be placed on freeways.
The cameras will provide law enforcement with the ability to track vehicles as they drive around the area, and can track them using license plates, car type, color, decals, and bumper stickers.
“We’re equipping law enforcement with the tools they need to effectively combat criminal activity and hold perpetrators accountable,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Friday. “[We are] building safer, stronger, communities for all Californians.”
The plan, part of a multimillion-dollar contract with private surveillance company Flock Safety and the California Highway Patrol, was approved by the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission in October. It was a reversal for the commission, which advised in 2019 that the city terminate any automatic license plate readers.
Flock Safety is a Georgia-based private company that advertises its goal of creating a nationwide surveillance network One of its features is the ability to add your cameras to their network, making it easily accessible for law enforcement nationwide. Flock Safety co-founder Garrett Langley has set a goal of 25% of all crimes in the country being solved using the Flock Safety network.
Already, Flock Safety has a significant foothold in the Bay area. A growing number of Homeowners Associations, including in the Oakland area, have already contracted Flock Safety to surveil their neighborhoods. Already, the company has deployed cameras in 2,000 cities in at least 42 states.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described the Flock Safety system as “blanketing American cities with dangerously powerful and unregulated automatic license plate recognition cameras” that are becoming the first “nationwide mass-surveillance system” using its customers’ cameras, including those owned by homeowners and businesses who opt-in.
The ACLU also warned that it could be used to investigate crimes across state lines, such as in immigration and abortion cases. It could also be used to monitor the movements of political activists or track who goes to certain religious services.
In May of last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital privacy group, revealed that the San Francisco Police Department requested and received live-feed access to a network of privately owned surveillance cameras prior to protests over the police killing of Tyre Nichols in 2020.
17 November 2023, 02:52 GMT
One of the major issues the ACLU has with the Flock Safety system over more traditional automatic license plate recognition cameras is that the company will store the images for up to 60 days.
Traditional systems delete photos immediately if the license plate does not match any law enforcement or AMBER alert lists. New Hampshire mandated all automatic license plate recognition camera systems delete photos that do not result in a hit within three minutes, a policy commended by the ACLU.
While most Californian cities saw a reduction in crime last year, Oakland was an exception, jumping 18%, with the largest jumps in robberies and motor vehicle thefts. However, it is unclear if the increased surveillance will actually reduce crime. Of the ten most surveilled cities judged by the number of cameras per 1,000 people, five of them, Washington DC, Chicago, Albuquerque, Detroit, and Memphis, are among the top 35 most dangerous cities in America, including two in the top five (Memphis and Detroit).