When Tulane University students walk around campus, Flock Safety Automated License Plate Readers are monitoring campus traffic. These cameras collect and store vehicle data — a practice that, while supporting safety efforts on campus, has also prompted concerns regarding privacy and transparency.
Flock Safety is a security camera provider that sells artificial intelligence-enhanced license plate readers to capture images of passing cars. On campus, these cameras are managed by the Tulane University Police Department.
“Tulane utilizes Flock License Plate Reader cameras as part of its broader public safety strategy,” Tulane spokesperson Michael Strecker said in a statement.
Artificial intelligence
“The system is designed to capture license plate information of vehicles entering and exiting campus areas,” Strecker said. “The goal of the LPR program is straightforward: to help keep the campus and surrounding community safe.”
Yet some say the term “license plate reader” may not fully capture the scope of this technology.
“It’s not only reading license plates,” Nicholas Mattei, associate professor of computer science and co-director of Tulane’s Center for Community-Engaged AI, said. “It’s also taking photos of the car, it’s doing all kinds of other stuff.”
According to Flock, cameras “apply machine learning” to vehicle details like license plate number and type, vehicle make and model, color, residency status, damage and the timestamp.
Advances in artificial intelligence and cloud storage have expanded what these systems can do, allowing large amounts of data to be stored and searched over time.
“We can record everything and store it forever,” Mattei said. “There’s the AI piece of it, and there’s a data storage piece of it. It is important to understand that two pieces of technology come together.”
Safety benefits and campus use
ALPR systems are widely used by law enforcement agencies to locate stolen vehicles, identify suspects and assist in criminal investigations.
According to a report published by Flock, 10% of crimes reported in the United States are solved with Flock systems.
“I could see [ALPRs] being helpful for certain situations, like situations of theft or robbery near campus,” Tulane senior Ella Taub said.
In other countries, like Australia or the United Kingdom, technologies like these are normalized.
“I lived in Australia, where these things are highly common,” Mattei said. “Most tickets in Australia are written by cameras; they’re not written by people.”
Privacy risks and concerns
The expansion of these automated systems is moving faster than safety regulations, raising concerns about surveillance.
“Our technology has vastly outpaced the rules that we have around it,” Mattei said.
Errors in and misuse of the technology present risks for citizen privacy and civil liberties. Flock camera technology has been linked to wrongful stops and arrests, targeted abortion investigations and searches related to immigration enforcement.
Some cities have removed the cameras and ended their contracts with Flock Safety, citing concerns of data privacy and security.
Tulane maintains that the technology is sound.
“License Plate Reader technology is widely used by universities and law enforcement agencies across the country as a proven public safety tool,” Strecker said.
“[Tulane] is framing this as a way to provide more safety measures for students on campus,” Taub said. “But I do think they could totally use it for other purposes.”
Flock safety technology has also been used by law enforcement agencies to surveil protestors and target activist groups.
“There are no biometrics in a Flock LPR device,” Chief Communications Officer Josh Thomas said in a video statement.
Questions of ownership and oversight
One of the central questions at Tulane is who controls the cameras and the data they collect.
“The system is managed in accordance with applicable laws and University policy and is used solely for legitimate public safety purposes,” Strecker said.
Private universities like Tulane may have more control over how they store and distribute data compared to public universities.
“I do think [the university] needs to be more transparent about it,” Mattei said. “Who are the Flock cameras going to impact? It’s the people on the ground, students.”
Click Here For The Original Source.
