license plate readers

Friday morning at 9am on the regular ROPE Report podcast, Michael and I welcomed Oklahoma Representative Tom Gann and former Logan County Commissioner, Marven Goodman, to talk about law enforcement surveillance of Oklahoma citizens through Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). This is a HUGE topic, as there are two bills in the legislature this session that need to be stopped – SB857 and HB1626.

During October of last year, Gann and Goodman discussed the problems with Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs – of which the brand Flock Safety – is probably the best known) at an Interim Study which Michael and I and our friend, Whitney Mullica from PikeOffOTA discussed via podcast, which you can find here. During that Interim Study, the video below was included. I am including it here, because so many people say things like, “If I’m not doing anything wrong, what does it matter?” They don’t realize exactly what can happen to them if they’re surveilled. Well, this man, who was simply traveling through Oklahoma did nothing wrong and yet he was pulled over and subjected to questioning and even a warrantless search by the law enforcement officer (LEO) that conducted the stop.

Hopefully, after that short – but painful – video, you now understand the reason why ALPRs are not a viable way of policing if citizens are to keep their Constitutional rights intact.

But it’s more than that. In Oklahoma, the use of ALPRs followed the genesis of a state law that required Oklahomans to buy uninsured motorist insurance. Rep. Gann and I discuss this fact in the clip below.

So why were Oklahomans required to buy ‘uninsured’ motorist protection? We’re 28th in Oklahoma in uninsured motorist coverage EVEN WITH the cameras, so what’s the point? Maybe a revenue stream for the Oklahoma District Attorney Council (ODAC)? According to Rep. Gann, the ODAC got ‘tired’ of coming before the legislature to seek funding and utilizing ALPRs to catch people without uninsured motorist coverage provided funding outside the legislative appropriation process – a process that also provides transparency for Oklahoma taxpayers that this group now DOESN’T HAVE.

But it gets worse – LEOs aren’t even legally allowed to use ALPR data the way it was used in the traffic stop above. How is it that a law enforcement agency is using technology illegally? Kind of smarts the sensibilities a bit, doesn’t it?

In the final video clip I’m going to add here, Rep. Gann points out that he’s asked how LEOs can be using this data illegally, but he gets no answer. In addition, even if a LEO does find a crime using this technology, NO PART OF THE DATA CAN BE USED IN COURT because we don’t have laws in Oklahoma that allow LEOs to collect the data in the first place. In fact, the man in the first video, sued Oklahoma and won because of that reason.

Rep. Gann and Michael talk about the Carpenter case – where cell phone data was collected by LEOs on a citizen and used against him. He then sued the government and won in the Supreme Court because this kind of tracking via technology is a violation of so many of our Constitutional rights to privacy.

This technology is also used to capture data that is then provided to OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT entities other than the one by which it was collected. So, for example, the City of Edmond collects data from ALPRs and stores the data, which can the be used by the ATF, or another state, or the FBI or the CIA – it’s ridiculous how many agencies can be allowed to see/use the data when it’s not even lawful to collect that data on residents in the state! Often, law enforcement entities – like Edmond – refuse to release the lists of law enforcement agencies using their ALPR data to the citizens they are surveilling!

Please contact your legislators – both Senators and Representatives – and ask them to VOTE NO on both SB857 and HB1626, which seek to put ‘guardrails’ (as explained to me by House author Representative John George) around the way in which law enforcement uses ALPR cameras.

Here is some suggested wording:

Dear ___________,

Please vote not on both SB857 and HB1626, seeking to put regulations around the use of ALPR (Flock Safety) cameras for law enforcement personnel in the state.

These cameras are only authorized for one use – to determine whether residents have uninsured motorist insurance. Oklahoma is 28th in the nation in uninsured motorist coverage. Clearly, the cameras aren’t solving that problem.

In addition, it’s a violation of my right to be forced to buy insurance I can choose to buy on my own.

The legislation allowing the use of ALPR cameras must be – at least – studied and completely revised, and – at most – completely repealed from law.

Protecting the individual rights of Oklahomans is the only reason you are elected by The People. Please protect my rights by working to stop the illegal surveillance of Oklahoma citizens via ALPR cameras.

Thank you,

Tuesday morning (10.8.24), the State Powers Committee held an interim study by Representative Tom Gann on the use of Automated License Plate Readers in Oklahoma, titled, “Track and Tax, Surveillance Cameras and Warrantless Searches“.

It was a really great study and brought out some very important issues that I think so many of us just going about our day, don’t really think about. Thanks to Representative Gann and the State Powers Committee for hearing the study.

Wednesday morning (10.9.24) for our regular podcast, our beloved regular guest Julianne Romanello – who was supposed to educate us about Carbon Credits – was unable to be on. Unfortunately, she ended up with sick kiddos and was unable to both be on the podcast and help sick kids at the same time! We hope everything gets back to normal for her soon – and don’t worry, we’ll have her BACK on to cover the topic next month!

Without a guest, Michael and I and our friend Whitney Mullica from PikeOffOTA, spent our time discussing the Interim Study on ALPRs.

You can find the live video on both our Rumble and YouTube channels, but below is a clip where we all three talk about the use of ALPR cameras (and software). According to the interim study, ALPR cameras were ONLY to be used to determine who was and wasn’t complying with Oklahoma’s compulsory insurance law. Below, we discuss that topic. Have you ever thought about what we discuss here?

Oklahoma’s compulsory insurance law is SB359.

So why are we all so fired up about this interim study and ALPRs? The video below contains the answer. Would you want to be a party to this traffic stop? How do you think the cop acted? Would you be nervous or scared in this situation? Wouldn’t you wonder how – AND WHY – this policeman had so much information about your travels?

After watching the interim study all of us were troubled, but it was after watching the chest cam video of a traffic stop that all of us became exceptionally troubled about ALPRs.

My House Representative is John George. Representative George has a degree in criminal justice and was the long-time President of the Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police.

Now, I will say this again – I am not a ‘cop hater’, I loved working with our police department when I was Mayor in Luther (OK) – however, for many years, I’ve watched policeman go from being the kind, but steely-hearted men and women willing to throw down their lives for their community, to people who are gruff or authoritarian when I encounter them. I understand that the police have had a very rough time in the PR realm in the last number of years, but someone whose job it is to ‘protect and serve’ individuals in their communities shouldn’t tend toward authoritarian, as the policeman in the video above.

I’ve also seen police departments militarize themselves by purchasing armor-plated vehicles and now, in Tulsa, robot dogs. Why? Are MOST of the people they stop horrible people just looking to give them trouble? I, of course, don’t know the answer to that, not being a beat cop, but I expect we haven’t crossed that threshold yet.

When I contacted Representative George about this issue, we had a cordial conversation. He is willing to put safeguards on the software that backs up ALPRs because he believes we don’t have any right now and we need to. However, when I asked him why we had a compulsory insurance law in the first place, his fall-back was the ‘public safety’ catch all – he didn’t really have an answer. He also believed that ALPRs are absolute necessity to find missing children, or catch murderers and other bad guys. I asked him why the police couldn’t use traditional methods for this and his answer was because with the new technology we don’t have to. I told him I disagreed with that perspective thoroughly and we ended the conversation agreeing to disagree, however, as the citizen who elected him to represent me, I don’t want the state using these things at all because there are way too many ways for their misuse.

So, let’s review – Oklahomans can buy insurance for their cars if they are financially able (I’m not going to explain socialism here, but if you blanch at that statement, please do a thorough bit of research into the topic) and if they so desire. Lots of insurance companies provide that service. Individuals can also buy insurance against an uninsured motorist. Why, then, must the state force citizens to do such a thing? If we didn’t have the compulsory insurance law, we wouldn’t have the ALPRs reading license plates in the first place. And therein the slippery slope that every legislator seems to hate for you to bring to their attention. We allowed state use of ALPRs and now the ALPR software is able to track our every movement. Bad. Deal.

But let’s continue, why do we all have to get a REAL ID? Don’t we already virtually have that with our driver’s licenses which now use facial recognition and a thumb print? Is that really necessary? If so, why? The answer, ‘public safety’, means exactly what? Whatever the person using it wants it to mean to get what they feel like is important to a concept of ‘safety’ which is not at all well drawn – we saw that in full splendor during COVID.

This quote was thrown out in the podcast, but I’ll leave it here as well. As Benjamin Franklin said so famously, but is so unheeded by both those who like being mommied and those who like being authoritarians, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” So note, when we choose not to parent ourselves – BIG BROTHER will do it for us, and if we choose not to fight for our privacy – BIG BROTHER will take it from us.

ROPE Report

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Law Enforcement Use Of ‘FLOCK’ Camera Surveillance in Oklahoma Does Not Protect Our Constitutional Rights

Liberty, Or A Surveillance State – ALPR Use In Oklahoma Is Inconsistent With Individual Liberty