Automatic License Plate Readers: Benefits, Risks, and Sensible Regulation

Executive Summary

Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are a popular policing technology that uses cameras and integrated software to identify cars by their license plates (and, in some cases, other identifying characteristics). ALPRs have become the subject of sustained online and offline furor in recent months, prompting calls to ban or physically destroy them.

These calls are mistaken. ALPRs are not a new technology—police have used them for decades. While the research is still developing, the best available evidence supports the proposition that ALPRs help reduce crime. And while doctrine is still evolving, there is a strong argument that their use does not contravene the Fourth Amendment as the courts today understand it.

Read on HERE

Shoplifting’s golden age | David Spencer | The Critic Magazine

When it comes to shoplifting, and indeed a whole host of other types of so-called “low-level” crime and disorder, we are living through perhaps the most…
— Read on thecritic.co.uk/shopliftings-golden-age/

Blacklisted – How Brady lists give prosecutors unchecked power to end cops’ careers and how to fix it.

Here is an important publication about prosecutor “no call lists” or “Brady Lists”. Check out the website HERE

The report can be found HERE

The corresponding podcast is available HERE

America and Public Disorder – Chris Arnade Walks the World

Our biggest social flaw should be addressed
— Read on walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/america-and-public-disorder

Evidence-based approach shows de-escalation is a learnable police skill

A three-year research collaboration between Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) has produced one of the most comprehensive real-world studies …
— Read on phys.org/news/2026-09-evidence-based-approach-de-escalation.html

Flock Favors: Police Across New York Search Flock on Behalf of ICE

In this report, S.T.O.P. and LatinoJustice PRLDEF detail how state and local police across New York have searched Flock’s nationwide license plate database on behalf of ICE, including to locate drivers suspected of no crime. The report documents explicit ICE-related searches by police in Nassau County, Beacon, Glen Cove, and Cheektowaga, as well as search patterns involving the New York State Intelligence Center, State Police, and Lancaster police that suggest additional immigration searches may have been hidden behind generic labels.

Get a .PDF of the report HERE

I the report is a link to an interesting website Have I Been Flocked check it out!

Don’t Ban Automated License Plate Readers—Regulate Them

ALPRs can improve policing and public safety, but we need stronger safeguards to prevent abuse and protect privacy.
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/automated-license-plate-readers-flock-ban