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404 Media
@404media.co

BREAKING: The Trump administration is using a grant program from the 1980s to force cities around the US to funnel their ongoing collection of Flock, Axon, and other ALPR data into large federal surveillance centers that fall under the White House’s jurisdiction, 404 Media has learned

404media.coHow Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance ProgramHow the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.
404 Media
@404media.co

The program raises significant privacy and transparency concerns; as cities begin to place restrictions on how their Flock data can be used, it represents an end-around for federal law enforcement to access data that it might not normally be able to, and to do so without any obvious oversight body.

404media.coHow Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance ProgramHow the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.
404 Media
@404media.co

The White House has taken steps to ensure local ALPR systems are fed into the “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” (HIDTA) program. For example: cities in Georgia can't operate ALPR systems without signing a “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) in which they promise to send their data to a HIDTA.

404media.coHow Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance ProgramHow the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.

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404 Media
@404media.co

Flock and Axon did not respond to a request for comment. The DEA said that it did not have jurisdiction over HIDTA and refused to comment. CBP and the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy did not respond to a request for comment.

404media.coHow Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance ProgramHow the federal government built a massive database of license plate reader data through an anti-drug trafficking program.
gravitasarbitrage.bsky.social
@gravitasarbitrage.bsky.social

A lot of democrats gave up a little freedom for (largely imaginary) security from these systems and are now on track to lose both. If only Ben "Fuckboi" Franklin was some kind of national figure, his (apocryphal) warning might then have been heard.