The benefits of automatic license plate readers outweigh the dangers, Richard Hanania argues:
There are now around 120,000 Flock cameras in operation across the US. These devices automatically read license plates and make their locations available to law enforcement. Flock now also makes it possible to look up cars by their descriptions, rather than just relying on plates. As one might expect, this has proved very useful in solving crimes. Just as predictably, it has caused a popular backlash.
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On the plus side of this technology, a 2023 study from the company itself estimated that Flock cameras are used in solving 700K crimes each year, or approximately 10% of all reported crime in the US. This study involved surveying law enforcement agencies that were Flock customers, ending up with 123 respondents that provided data researchers considered adequate for analysis. They were asked “How many arrests have you made that can directly be attributed to the use of a Flock Safety camera?” and asked to provide corresponding case records.
From there, the authors make broader estimates of society at large. More recent research from Flock boasts about last year seeing 1,000,000 “cases supported” and helping to locate approximately 10,000 missing persons. The company estimates that its technology was involved in roughly one in five cases cleared in its customer jurisdictions.
These are absolutely massive benefits.
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You would expect Flock cameras to have the biggest impact on auto theft, and here the results are particularly striking. In 2023, the crime reached a recent high. But in 2024, the Council on Criminal Justice, which relies on a sample of cities, estimated a 24% decline over the previous year. That was followed by an even larger drop of 27% in 2025, and a further 20% fall in the first half of 2026. Overall, this corresponds to a decline of over 50% in just three years.
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Fifty known cases of stalking strike me as something that is barely worth mentioning in the context of plummeting crime rates. Moreover, these are all rogue actors, and they have been punished in cases where there is sufficient evidence that they’ve committed crimes, indicating that none of these instances are part of a larger plot to deprive large numbers of citizens of their rights.