tl;dr
- actually useful for stopping car related crime like thefts, which has a wide ranging affect on other related violent crime,
- is not the same as facial recognition, or phone tracking
- abuse is detectable
- constitutional arguments for ALPRs being a form of privacy intrusion are flimsy since they are mostly applied to public roads which have no privacy protections
The constitutional arguments have actually already been heard, and the court has determined that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy from continuous government surveillance of movement. The relevant cases are Carpenter and Chatrie.
Comments
I'll go out on a limb here, all this pushback against ALPRs is starting to feel like throwing the baby out with the bathwater
this article in particular was an interesting case for the benefits of ALPRs: https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/a-cops-case-for-flock
tl;dr - actually useful for stopping car related crime like thefts, which has a wide ranging affect on other related violent crime, - is not the same as facial recognition, or phone tracking - abuse is detectable - constitutional arguments for ALPRs being a form of privacy intrusion are flimsy since they are mostly applied to public roads which have no privacy protections
The constitutional arguments have actually already been heard, and the court has determined that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy from continuous government surveillance of movement. The relevant cases are Carpenter and Chatrie.