Feel Safe Now? License Plate Readers Are Tracking You Everywhere You Drive

This is so egregious that I don’t know where to begin. A startup company founded in 2018, Flock Safety, funded by Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen) and Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), among others, has invented a scalable device that can be mounted anywhere, which sucks data from every passing vehicle. It is self-powered with a solar panel and communicates via WiFi. It can be mounted on any type of pole, and they also sell the poles. These cameras can capture every license plate passing by on a busy four-lane freeway, but it doesn’t stop there: it records the make and color of your vehicle, any identifying features like window stickers or vehicle damage. Thus, it “fingerprints” your car.

Police systems integrate the “flock” into a situation room at HQ, and then they can track the movement of any vehicle in real time – even across jurisdictions, states, and even nationwide.

How dare these arch-technocrats like Andreessen and Thiel try to capture the whole country in motion? Are you not a criminal? Well, your Fourth Amendment rights are being ground to dust:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This doesn’t deter Technocrat-run Flock. Their camera systems have been deployed in over 5,000 municipal agencies across 49 states, including counties, school districts, and private entities. The company says it is scanning over 20 billion vehicles per month with over 40,000 cameras installed nationwide — and they are just getting started!

Here’s what Flock says about itself…

Cities that are literally saturated with Flock cameras include San Francisco (CA), Loudoun County (VA), Atlanta (GA), Virginia Beach (VA) and oh, the shame of it, Scottsdale (AZ), is leading the pack by integrating about 4,000 other live video streams of different brands into their Flock system.

Now here is the big problem and why Americans are so upset.

This needs to stop.

I don’t know about you, but I am going to print some flyers and hand them out to drivers – and give them a Technocracy Brochure, to boot – and ask them if it bothers them that they are being surveilled like a criminal.

Want to come with me? If you live in Arizona, contact me here.

Addendum

After using the interactive map above, I quickly found these Flock cameras nearby at The Home Depot and Lowes. They are tracking every car that goes into and out of their parking lot. The Home Depot has one Flock on the left the reads all vehicles going in or out. The Flock on the left side faces the street traffic. Note that the fasteners are simple stainless steel hose clamps. There are public sidewalks all around, but I will test the store’s resolve to trespass me if I stand inside the signage. This is low hanging fruit for a effective protest.