Oppose Mass Surveillance--A Letter to the Virginia General Assembly
Sent via email
February 20, 2023
The Honorable Richard L. Saslaw, Senate Majority Leader
The Honorable Thomas K. Norment, Senate Minority Leader
The Honorable Todd. C. Gilbert, Speaker of the House
The Honorable Don L. Scott Jr., House Minority Leader
Cc: Members of the Virginia General Assembly
Richmond, VA 23219
Dear Senate and House Leadership,
Two bills are close to passage in Virginia that would bring unlimited mass surveillance to the Commonwealth’s highways: SB 1165 (Lewis, D) and HB 1437 (Wiley, R). It is impossible to overstate how grim and harmful this legislation is, but anyone who has read George Orwell’s 1984 or who watched Tom Cruise in Minority Report could tell you why passing it is a bad idea. We, the undersigned organizations, write today to urge you to oppose the use of a statewide mass surveillance system operated by Virginia law-enforcement agencies to collect data on motorists using privately installed automatic license plate readers (ALPRs).
Our organizations vary across the political spectrum, yet collectively we oppose this mass surveillance tool because of the serious and significant implications on our privacy, the increased unregulated and unmonitored use of technology by law enforcement and the potential this technology has to become just another driver of mass incarceration and disparate policing of Black and Brown people. We also share concerns over the indeterminate costs of this new statewide system on taxpayers, and the long-term intentions of Flock Safety and other private companies who have solicited lawmakers in our great Commonwealth to build an expansive and seamless system of surveillance countrywide.
The proposals under consideration in Virginia would authorize statewide deployment of ALPRs that could result in the collection of records of every individual driver passing through the Commonwealth on our state highways. The data will be stored in a massive national database being built by a private vendor for at least 30 days. Additionally, the legislation allows sharing of any and all of the collected data for “law enforcement purposes'' without any real restraints, oversight, or compliance regulation. And as a caveat, law enforcement will lawfully be able to store data beyond 30 days for individuals it considers to be part of an “active law-enforcement investigation,” requiring no proof of criminal wrongdoing. This system of mass surveillance gives enormous opportunity for abuse of unimaginable scale.
Virginia locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth, and ranks in the top 20 nationwide in mass incarceration. The overrepresentation of Black Virginians in our criminal legal system is also well documented. And data collected in the Commonwealth over the last 30 months has revealed evidence that laws and policies, particularly those used under the guise of traffic enforcement, disproportionately impact Black and Brown Virginians. What could possibly go wrong with an unregulated collection of data by police and private companies of every individual who travels on Virginia roadways? We are still amidst an historic civil rights movement and are genuinely disappointed that a majority of our Virginia lawmakers have swiftly passed this measure into its current posture in this year's legislative session.
For weeks, civil rights activists and organizations have documented how Flock Safety has built ALPRs to provide “investigate leads to law enforcement” to “eliminate crime.” It is their goal and mission. Flock is building a giant surveillance network that records people’s comings and goings across the nation, and then makes that data available for search by any of its law enforcement customers. And every new customer that buys and installs the company’s cameras extends Flock’s network, contributing to the creation of a centralized mass surveillance system. We share great concern over the motivations of these private vendors that have romanced our police departments and lobbied our lawmakers to incentivize its deployment. Even though Flock says its surveillance goal is to eliminate crime, there is little evidence that this kind of surveillance actually reduces crime. What the system does is create a “Vehicle Fingerprint.” Using a “proprietary machine learning algorithm,” it gathers “vehicle make, type, color, license plate, state of the license plate, covered plates, missing plates, and unique features like roof racks and bumper stickers,” and there is growing evidence that false hits have led to unjustified police stops, particularly of Black and Brown people. Like all machines, ALPRs make mistakes. And these mistakes can endanger people’s lives and physical safety. Once the cameras are in place across the Commonwealth, there will be nothing to stop law enforcement from adding software using artificial intelligence to do predictive policing.
We encourage you to protect the lives, liberty, and interests of the people you represent, not the predatory private companies whose technology invades our private lives and pushes Virginia further into a police state. We call on you to strongly oppose SB 1165 and HB 1437. There is still time to stop this disturbing, unnecessary proposal.
Sincerely,
Justice Forward Virginia
Activate Virginia
ACLU of Virginia
Ignite Justice
Network NOVA
The Williamsburg James City County Coalition for Community Justice
Sistas in Prison Reform
Virginia Student Power Network
BigMoneyOutVA
RISE for Youth
Marijuana Justice
REFORM Alliance
Nolef Turns
FairfaxGrassroots
Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers