Mass surveillance is antithetical to the freedoms upon which this country was founded. Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems in particular, have been repeatedly weaponized by police officers to stalk people and agencies like ICE to target migrants, all while fueling a fascist agenda being pushed by Big Tech corporations and their political enablers. ALPRs are one or more cameras that are always on, capturing, transferring, and storing data on millions of vehicles and pedestrians daily.

• ALPRs have been used to surveil people for political views, religious views, race, sexual orientation and immigration status.

• ALPRs have been used to stalk women, children, and ex-partners, and to track people seeking reproductive healthcare, bearing arms and other constitutionally protected rights.

• ALPRs frequently relay false positives, misreads, and other errors that have contributed to high-risk traffic stops; people have been held at gunpoint by police, wrongfully accused, incarcerated, mauled, and permanently disabled.

• The APD calls this technology a “force multiplier,” but they fail to recognize or take accountability for how this is a weapon for expanding criminalization and mass incarceration.

The only way to protect Arlington County residents and visitors from this dangerous surveillance technology, is to ban it.