The City of Harrisonburg installed 30 mass surveillance cameras without public input. Automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) are AI surveillance technology designed to track, collect, and store the movements of every traveler. ALPRs are a digital dragnet that capture information about millions of people who’ve committed no crimes. They pose serious threats to our safety, liberty and privacy. The city has contracted with a $7.5 billion tech startup company–Flock “Safety”--funded by Peter Thiel of Palantir and others. This private company (and others like it) aims to create a seamless system of surveillance nationwide.

ALPRs radically transform the consequences of leaving home to pursue private life and create tremendous opportunity for abuse by private companies, the police, and the government. The abuse of the data collected by ALPRs has been prevalent and well documented. ALPRs have been used by law enforcement to surveil people because of political views, sexual orientation, and immigration status, and also to surveil intimate partners, women seeking reproductive healthcare, and Black and Brown people. ALPR databases have been accessed by federal agencies to include ICE, DHS, ATF, CBP, and other out of state law enforcement and government agencies.

We oppose mass surveillance because of:

• the serious and significant implications on our safety

• the increasing abuse by law enforcement and government

• the disparate impacts on minority and immigrant communities

• the potential this technology has to become another driver of mass incarceration

• the growing costs of this new system on taxpayers

• and the unavoidable access ALPRs provide to law enforcement, private parties, other states, and the federal government to an immense amount of highly sensitive data without our consent

City council has the power to cancel Harrisonburg's mass surveillance contracts, including Flock. Take this one click call to action to demand city council De-Flock our city and protect people from harmful mass surveillance.