Applying AI to License Plate Surveillance
License plate scanners aren’t new. Neither is using them for bulk surveillance. What’s new is that AI is being used on the data, identifying “suspicious” vehicle behavior:
Typically, Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology is used to search for plates linked to specific crimes. But in this case it was used to examine the driving patterns of anyone passing one of Westchester County’s 480 cameras over a two-year period. Zayas’ lawyer Ben Gold contested the AI-gathered evidence against his client, decrying it as “dragnet surveillance.”
And he had the data to back it up. A FOIA he filed with the Westchester police revealed that the ALPR system was scanning over 16 million license plates a week, across 480 ALPR cameras. Of those systems, 434 were stationary, attached to poles and signs, while the remaining 46 were mobile, attached to police vehicles. The AI was not just looking at license plates either. It had also been taking notes on vehicles’ make, model and color—useful when a plate number for a suspect vehicle isn’t visible or is unknown.
John Tillotson • August 22, 2023 7:30 AM
It does amaze me to see the amount of personal data that is grabbed by the surveillance platforms every time that a user visits a website (financial info, browsing history, PII, voice and typing data, etc), and that merits not a whimper, even though the browsing is done inside a home in a place where privacy is expected, and on a “personal” computer where we might expect our data to be private.
https://www.ghacks.net/2021/03/16/wonder-about-the-data-google-collects-in-chrome-and-links-to-you-now-we-know/
But people freak out over a limited license plate scanning program that only tracks and aqgregates publicly-visible information in a public space where no realistic expectation of privacy exists.
This might be a really valuable tool for law enforcement, with the ability to correlate vehicle traffic to crimes, finding stolen cars, finding stolen license plates and helping with Amber Alerts. Clearly it has the ability to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
People worried about privacy need to get their priorities straight.