Slate Business What Next: TBD | The Surveillance Interstate
Nov 23, 2025
Joseph Cox, investigative journalist and co-founder of 404 Media, dives deep into the world of license-plate surveillance. He reveals how ALPR systems enable real-time tracking and the troubling ways law enforcement, including ICE, can access this data without warrants. Cox discusses controversial cases, like a Texas abortion-related incident, and highlights the pushback from cities against invasive surveillance. He shares practical tips for drivers on maintaining their privacy in an age of increasing monitoring and advocates for regulatory reforms.
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Warrantless Plate Tracking Enables Personal Identification
- ICE tested a Motorola app that lets officers photograph license plates and feed scans into a national database for near-real-time vehicle tracking.
- Combining plate scans with Thomson Reuters identity data lets agents link plates to people, addresses, and associates quickly.
ALPRs Create Everyday Nationwide Surveillance
- Automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) blanket many U.S. areas and continuously capture plate, vehicle, and sometimes visual detail data.
- Companies market ALPRs for stolen cars and missing people, masking large-scale, routine surveillance capabilities.
Public Records Reveal ICE Side‑Door Access
- Researchers obtained Flock network audits showing police query logs that included searches for ICE and immigration enforcement.
- That revealed ICE was getting 'side door' access by having local cops run nationwide Flock lookups.