BOSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts today sent a letter to every municipality in the Commonwealth, warning officials about the dangers of using license plate readers (LPRs), including technology sold by Flock Safety. The ACLU has previously raised concerns about the use of this technology in Massachusetts.
According to the new letter, Flock’s LPR technology facilitates the automatic sharing of sensitive data with thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide — including those involved in civil immigration enforcement and located in states that ban abortion. This police data sharing undermines the Massachusetts Shield Law and potentially violates its protections.
The letter urges local governments to take four steps:
- Determine whether their police departments use Flock or another LPR provider.
- Request documentation detailing the system settings and contract language governing LPR usage and data sharing in particular.
- Disable settings and amend contract language that would allow Flock or another LPR provider to share the local data with law enforcement agencies outside of Massachusetts.
- If external data sharing cannot be prevented, end the LPR contract and remove cameras from their communities.
“Massachusetts drivers shouldn’t have to fear that their movements are being shared with potentially hostile out-of-state actors,” said Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Our Shield Law is designed to protect people lawfully seeking and providing abortion and gender-affirming care from harassment or malicious prosecution. Police use of Flock and other license plate readers may undermine the effectiveness of this law or even potentially violate some of its protections. Municipal leaders should work with their police departments to ensure they are not inadvertently endangering residents by sharing sensitive location data with police in thousands of jurisdictions nationwide.”
The letter highlights several problems with the use of Flock LPR technology by municipalities in Massachusetts, including privacy, safety, security, and statutory concerns. In particular, the ACLU urges local officials to disable any nationwide data sharing features and amend any contract language that may give Flock the legal right to share data from the local jurisdiction.
BACKGROUND:
Flock Safety sells license plate readers and database software to police departments, federal agencies, and private corporations across the country. LPR cameras collect data indicating who is driving, where, and when — for every car that passes, not merely cars associated with suspected criminal activity. Flock stores this information in a database.
Flock's data-sharing settings allow for the automatic sharing of information collected about local drivers with thousands of police departments nationwide. Even when those settings are restrictive, the ACLU has discovered that standard Flock contracts with Massachusetts police departments include language that may supersede these settings, giving the company expansive license to share local data nationwide.
According to public records recently obtained by the ACLU, police departments in Massachusetts are currently sharing data with thousands of agencies nationwide. Records show that police in states like Florida and Texas have searched license plate reader data through the Flock nationwide database, including queries related to immigration enforcement and at least one abortion-related investigation. Police departments have also searched the nationwide database on behalf of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Border Patrol.
Passed in 2022 and updated in August, the Massachusetts Shield Law ensures that officers and employees of Massachusetts law enforcement agencies may not “provide information or assistance to any federal law enforcement agency or any other state’s law enforcement agency...in relation to an investigation or inquiry” into reproductive healthcare or gender-affirming healthcare that is lawful in the Commonwealth.
Read the full letter here.
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