Police Cameras Watch Every Car In OKC, But No One Tracks Who Uses Them

Automatic license-plate readers are cameras that do exactly what the name suggests. Of course, most of them do far more than just read license plates. They record every single car that passes, saving information on make, model, dents, dings, and sometimes even bumper stickers. From there, authorities, and in some cases, private citizens too, can gain access to that data.

Now, one police department is under fire for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the technology while maintaining no meaningful oversight, audit logs, or transparency rules around its use.

More: Flock Traffic Cameras Track Everything, Except The Cops Misusing Them

That department is in Oklahoma City, where a local resident filed several Freedom of Information Act requests. The department admitted that it spends $270,000 in tax dollars annually for the Flock Safety system it uses. It doesn’t own the cameras; it simply pays for access to the data Flock gathers. Over the course of the contract, the OCPD has spent around $800,000 on the system, the Oklahoma City Free Press reports.

Who’s Watching The Watchers?

According to the FOIA requester, OCPD admitted that it has no published access controls and does not document who can access the system. It also has no prohibited-use policies, meaning anyone with access could browse or search for whomever they want without clearly violating written rules. The department also lacks discipline standards in case someone misuses the system, for example, to stalk a former partner.

The department has no audit procedures to track who is accessing the data or how often, and it does not provide any routine transparency reporting. In essence, the department (and Flock) have access to large amounts of surveillance data with, as far as the documents show, no formal oversight policy in place. And there’s one more piece to the puzzle that makes the situation even murkier.

The Legal Gray Area Around Plate Readers

Under Oklahoma statute §47-7-606.1, automated license-plate reader systems tied to the state’s uninsured-vehicle enforcement program are restricted to insurance enforcement, with limits on how collected data can be used or retained.

What makes this a gray area is that the law does not prohibit other ALPR systems from operating under separate legal authority. None of that, however, addresses the other concerns that critics have raised in the past.

Reports have surfaced nationwide highlighting security and privacy issues with ALPR cameras. Researchers and watchdog groups have documented vulnerabilities that could allow unauthorized access to vehicle data, and there have been multiple cases where law-enforcement officers misused plate-reader databases, sometimes leading to discipline, termination, or even criminal charges. In several instances, the misuse only came to light after citizens requested access logs and discovered questionable searches.

At least in the case of the Oklahoma City Police Department, misuse has not been proven. That said, it would be difficult to prove misuse when the department isn’t tracking who is using the system in the first place.