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In context: Communities across the US have pushed back against the deployment of AI-powered automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) because of concerns about mass surveillance. Reports over the past year or so illustrate how authorities have used data from these devices to conduct traffic stops based on nothing more than "suspicious" travel patterns.

The ACLU recently outlined a pattern of police traffic stops based solely on data from Flock cameras and other license plate readers. The reports go back to at least 2025 and show how closely authorities can track the movements of most motorists.

In one case from late 2025, a woman only understood the extent of the surveillance when an officer demonstrated the software following a traffic stop.…