How Cities Are Forced to Funnel License Plate Data to a Massive Federal Surveillance Program

The Trump administration has implemented a grant program from the 1980s to compel cities nationwide to transmit their automated license plate reader (ALPR) data to federal surveillance hubs under the White House's control, according to documents and court records obtained by 404 Media. This system, known as the "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" (HIDTA) program, allows the federal government to obtain and aggregate data from local police's ALPR cameras, including those from manufacturers like Flock and Axon.

In some instances, this data is further shared with the Drug Enforcement Agency's National License Plate Reader Program (NLPRP). The program raises concerns about privacy and transparency since local ALPR data can be accessed by various federal agencies, including those that may not have contracts with the ALPR companies. HIDTA is overseen by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and has recently been recognized for its ALPR platform, which unites different levels of law enforcement.

The ONDCP, often referred to as the "drug czar," has previously funded other surveillance programs, such as a call records database called Hemisphere that collected phone and location data on over a trillion AT&T calls. HIDTA consists of 33 intelligence centers across all 50 states, managed by "executive boards" composed of law enforcement officials and government lawyers.

However, this structure can lead to ambiguity regarding who holds responsibility for the data collected. The program's complexity is evident in the Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) signed by cities like Brunswick, Georgia, which require them to transmit ALPR data to HIDTA. Such MOUs essentially mandate cities to funnel their ALPR data through HIDTA, where it can be accessed by various other law enforcement agencies via aggregation software that compiles data from multiple sources.