Earlier this year, Freeman launched DeFlock, an online map where users can plot automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in their cities.
According to DeFlock, these cameras capture images of all passing license plates and store details such as the car’s location and the date, and time they passed.
“While these systems can be useful for tracking stolen cars or wanted individuals, they are mostly used to track the movements of innocent people,” the site reads.
Freeman, who currently lives in Colorado, said he was inspired to create the map after driving to Huntsville from Washington state to visit his parents.
“Where I lived at the time in Washington, I didn’t see any ALPRs besides like stuff for toll roads,” he said.
“But on the trip, once I started getting into the South, that’s when I noticed a lot of these weird like black poles with solar panels on top and what looked like a camera with infrared in it. And it took me a bit to figure it out, but I realized it was an automatic license plate reader by Flock, which is the company that makes most of them based out of Atlanta.”
“After seeing all of them I just didn’t like them because I don’t like being tracked. I’m a big privacy advocate and the less tracking the better in my opinion.”
Flock CEO Garrett Langley has said his goal is to “eliminate” crime in America in 10 years, a target that has been called impossible by experts.
There are currently dozens of ALPRs reported in Huntsville alone on DeFlock.
So far, nearly 2,000 cameras have been reported in the United States and more than 5,500 have been reported around the world.
None have been reported in Mobile, Birmingham, or Montgomery — so far.
“This is a kind of tracking unlike tracking on your phone, because on your phone you can opt out just by simply not using your phone or not using services that do things with your data that you don’t like,” he said.
“But with these ALPRs you can’t opt out of that, unless you just like walk around everywhere, bike around everywhere, which is not possible in a lot of places. So, you’re required to have a license plate on your car. So indirectly, you’re required to be tracked wherever you go pretty much.”
Limits on ALPRs
With the website, Freeman said his eventual goal is to have the cameras removed entirely, or at the very least, have some signage posted.
“Ideally, I’d like them to be removed, but realistically, that might not happen,” he said.
“In certain states, like California, they have actually put laws into place to regulate this kind of thing. So, one of the things they require is holding a public meeting before the installation of these things.”
“I noticed that a lot of cities in California that have these things [ALPRs] have signs on them. Because you are actually showing people that, like we’re not trying to spy on you.”
“We’re letting you know that you’re being watched right now. And I still don’t like that, but it’s better. And most people would find that better than just hiding them.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Alabama does not currently have any regulations specifically addressing ALPRs.
In 2020, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, filed a bill that would have put limits on the use and storage of data collected from the readers, but it was not passed.
“We don’t need the government tracking citizens’ movements without significant limitations,” Orr told Alabama Daily News previously.
“I’m fully supportive of law enforcement using technology to catch criminals, but we certainly don’t need them spying on the movements of ordinary citizens.”
But many Alabama residents aren’t even aware of the surveillance. Last month, Freeman posted to a Huntsville subreddit asking people about the cameras.
As of Nov. 14, the post has received over 300 responses and many readers reached out to tell Freeman they had no idea the cameras existed, he said.
“I want to get more contributors to get more data points so people can see how many there actually are,” he said.
“The end goal is to mostly raise awareness, because right now there’s a big lack of awareness, and I have a feeling a lot of things would change, and a lot of people would not be happy with how many there are if they actually knew about it.”
He added that he would also like to use DeFlock to create a way to avoid the cameras.
“Some other smaller, secondary goals are creating navigation around these things, because I know which direction they’re facing,” he said.
“So eventually I should be able to give you a Google Maps route or something that avoids all of them, if that’s something you care about.”
Are ALPRs unconstitutional?
Freeman is not the only person taking issue with Flock’s surveillance.
Lee Schmidt and Crystal Arrington of Norfolk, Va., filed a lawsuit against the city and its police department in late Oct. that claims the use of Flock cameras is unconstitutional.
“The City of Norfolk, Virginia, has installed a network of cameras that make it functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked, photographed, and stored in an AI-assisted database that enables the warrantless surveillance of their every move,” the complaint reads.
“This civil rights lawsuit seeks to end this dragnet surveillance program.”
The complaint claims that the city’s use of ALPRs violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
“Tracking the whole of a person’s public movements over (at least) 30 days is a search,” it reads.
“And because the City does all of this without a warrant—instead letting individual officers decide for themselves when and how to access an unprecedented catalogue of every person’s movements throughout Norfolk and beyond—the City’s searches are unreasonable.”
The filing also goes on to express concerns with how the city might use the data or what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands.
“Plaintiffs are ordinary, everyday people who live and work in Norfolk,” it reads. “Nearly every day, they drive past the City’s automatic license plate readers as they go to work, to the store, to their kids’ schools, to church, or to meet friends and family.”
“Like most people, they try to maintain a reasonable amount of privacy in their lives. And they find it downright creepy that the City’s 172 unblinking eyes follow them as they go about their days, noting where they are and when, and storing their movements in a government database for any officer to see.
“They worry about how someone might use or misuse that information, especially given the minimal restrictions on access.”
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