In the US, school buses may soon become surveillance vehicles, according to 404 media’s report. A review of leaked documents revealed plans to deploy buses with automatic license plate readers (ALPR).
The data will be allegedly given to government agencies. Already, privacy is a concerning issue amid rising data safety violations. Equipping buses with surveillance cameras will be unconstitutional and national-level spying of citizens in the US.
About the incident
Bus Patrol, US’ leading provider of school bus stop-arm cameras has over 40,000 AI-based cameras throughout 24 states. These cameras are allowed in 30 states, and are installed on school buses, and capture images of vehicles violating traffic rules when the bus is stopped.
The footages captured by the buses are “recorded, reviewed, and submitted to local law enforcement for review and final approval,” says BusPatrol.
Stop-arm cameras claim to improve driver behaviour near school buses and student safety, but they have faced backlashes for failing on both ends. Stop-arm cameras also generate millions of dollars for businesses like BusPatrol.
Currently, the firm plans to increase its data collection, revenue, and teaming with local law enforcement by changing stop-arm camera into ALPRs, as per the leaked BusPatrol documents.
Why is ALPR system an issue?
ALPR systems are run by firms such as Flock Safety. They record the license plate number of passing vehicles but unlike traffic signals or stop-cameras, ALPR “cameras photograph every vehicle that drives by and can use artificial intelligence to create a profile with identifying information that then gets stored into a massive data base,” said the Institute for Justice (I.J), a public interest law firm.
The data can be sent to law agencies which might use it for searching a vehicle or driver without requiring a legal warrant. The ALPR cameras fixed on moving school buses will help enforcement agencies to capture every moving vehicle they come across.
Flawed implementation
Without ethical enforcement, these cameras can be exploited. joshua Windham, a senior I.J. attorney, announced a nationwide campaign to oppose the uncontrolled and unconstitutional deployment of ALPR technology.
Earlier ALPR systems’ data security has come under scrutiny after cases of sharing databases with immigration agencies surfaced despite company policies forbidding it.
In Kansas, an officer used the data to trace his ex-girlfriend whereas in Texas, officers used the data to search for a woman who got an abortion. Such incidents have caused a few communities to termiate their contracts and discontinue ALPR entirely.
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