ALPRs are recording your daily drive (Lock and Code S06E26)

ALPRs are recording your daily drive, with a growing network of AI-powered cameras mounted on street lights, bridges, telephone poles and even cop cars across the United States. These devices capture a vehicle’s licence plate number, along with make, model and colour, and can reveal where a car was headed and when, potentially linking data to determine a daylong route and the owner’s routine.

The piece notes vulnerabilities exposed in 2024 in cameras made by Motorola Solutions, and at the start of 2025 more than 150 ALPR cameras were reported to be leaking their live streams. It highlights that ALPR databases are largely accessed by police who do not need a warrant in many cases, and that the example of the Flock systems shows police can search data with minimal guardrails.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, analysis of 12 million police searches in Flock’s systems found instances where the text box was used to search for terms like “protest,” suggesting investigations into First Amendment activity. The episode features Will Freeman of the DeFlock Me project, discussing how this surveillance is expanding and how protections for everyday people remain flimsy.