The Discriminatory Placement of Chicago’s Automated License Plate Reader Cameras
The Chicago Police Department currently utilizes a mass surveillance technology called automated license plate readers (“ALPR”). ALPRs are high-speed cameras that scan their surroundings for vehicle license plates. When an ALPR camera scans a license plate, the camera records an image of the plate, along with the date, time, location, and photograph of the vehicle and its plate. ALPR software then uploads these images of license plates, called “detections” or “plate scans,” to a centralized database. CPD contracts with a third-party company called Vigilant Solutions for access to Vigilant’s database of ALPR detections, called the National Vehicle Location Service (“NVLS”).[1]
Vigilant Solutions’ law enforcement clients access the NVLS via Vigilant’s software/online portal, called the Law Enforcement Archival Reporting Network (“LEARN”). Law enforcement agencies like CPD can enter a license plate number into the database and the database will return a list of all instances in which its ALPR cameras detected that plate. Law enforcement agencies can also elect to make their NVLS-hosted detections accessible to other law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies can also create lists of wanted license plates (“hot lists”) in the database and the database will alert that agency of all future detections of those plates when they occur (“hits”).
CPD currently owns and operates an unknown number of fixed location ALPR cameras and at least 225 vehicle-mounted ALPR cameras.[2] In 2019 and 2020, CPD paid Vigilant $337,050.00 and $386,474.71 respectively for database access services.[3]
While ALPRs sometimes provide valuable intelligence to law enforcement agencies, this surveillance technology also raises serious discrimination concerns. Civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Brennan Center for Justice, have raised concerns about the discriminatory impact of ALPR camera deployment.[4]
In addition to exposing communities of color and other vulnerable populations to over-policing, the discriminatory deployment of ALPR cameras can also signal to those communities that they are unvalued. “Surveillance that disproportionately targets communities of color carries a distinct and cognizable equal protection harm: branding them with a badge of inferiority.”[5]
For example, New York City police have reportedly driven their vehicle-mounted ALPRs past mosques to records the plates of the attendees.[6] Police in the United Kingdom have installed fixed-location ALPR predominantly in Muslim suburbs of Birmingham.[7] EFF obtained data for Oakland, California, demonstrating that the police disproportionately deployed vehicle-mounted ALPRs in low-income communities and communities of color.[8]
Sadly, Chicago appears to be no different. CPD has steadfastly refused to reveal the locations of fixed-location ALPR cameras, citing FOIA exemptions protecting specialized law enforcement techniques. However, a recent disclosure from the Public Building Commission of Chicago shows that CPD’s 2017 fixed-location ALPR camera installation project focused primarily on Black and Hispanic neighborhoods on the South and West sides.[9] The City installed these ALPR cameras exclusively in the 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 15th police districts. Transparency Chicago has mapped out the locations of these cameras.[10]
Of course, it is possible that the City installed fixed-location ALPR cameras in other neighborhoods such as downtown and North side neighborhoods.However, given CPD’s secrecy regarding its ALPR camera placement, we know only the locations of these South and West side cameras.
[1] Handley, Joel, “Chicago Police Tight-lipped About Use of License Plate Scanners, Despite $500,000 New Contract”, In These Times (February 20, 2015), available at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/17659/cpd-tightlipped-about-use-of-license-plate-scanners-despite-new-contract ; see, also, CPD 2019 Hit Ratio Report, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20389070-chicago-il-police-department-alpr-hit-ratio-report-2019 ; and CPD 2020 Agency Data Sharing Report, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20389124-chicago-il-police-alpr-agency-sharing-2020 .
[2] CPD ALPR Vehicle List, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20389072-chicago-il-police-department-alpr-vehicles-list
[3] See 2019 and 2020 CDW Government Invoices for Vigilant Solutions database access available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20389128-chicago-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-invoices-2019-and-2020
[4] See, e.g. American Civil Liberties Union, “You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used
To Record Americans’ Movements” (2013), available at: https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/071613-aclu-alprreport-opt-v05.pdf; Electronic Frontier Foundation, “Street Level Surveillance: Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs)” (2017), available at: https://www.eff.org/pages/automated-license-plate-readers-alpr; and Brennan Center for Justice, “Automatic License Plate Readers: Legal Status and Policy Recommendations for Law Enforcement Use” (2020), available at: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/automatic-license-plate-readers-legal-status-and-policy-recommendations#footnote27_bxc7gmi
[5] Brennan Center for Justice, “Automatic License Plate Readers: Legal Status and Policy Recommendations for Law Enforcement Use”, supra.
[6] American Civil Liberties Union, “You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used
To Record Americans’ Movements”, supra, at pp. 11, 13.
[7] Id.
[8] Electronic Frontier Foundation, “Street Level Surveillance: Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs)”, supra.
[9] “Task Order 946 LPR CPD District Camera Installations”, below, also available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436867-chicago-il-police-alpr-fixed-cameras-installation-task-order-946
[10] https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436883-chicago-2017-alpr-deployment-pic