# Controversy surrounding automatic license plate reader cameras
# 13News Now — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTEWQixVkSY

A growing controversy over automated license plate readers.
Now
authorities are saying that cameras are being
vandalized by people who want them taken down.
ABC's Rena Roy has the latest.
As more cities implement automated license plate readers,
controversy is brewing.
Authorities in New Jersey are warning that
those flock cameras are increasingly being targeted,
according to an intelligence bulletin reviewed by ABC News.
Local police now urged to step up patrol.
Around those cameras which automatically scan every license plate that passes,
logging the vehicle time and location into a searchable database
that officers can use to track vehicles.
We've talked about this issue
nationwide about and how the number of good things
flock cameras have done,
LPRs have done,
missing persons,
finding missing kids.
It's been a game changer for us.
What we've been able to accomplish here.
Flock cameras were even used in the Brown University
and MIT shooting investigations to help locate the suspect,
but critics are calling Flock cameras a mass surveillance system,
sparking protests over privacy concerns.
Even
if I trust my police department,
I don't want them knowing my every movement.
Recently,
cameras in Houston have been vandalized,
covered in spray paint.
In Winona,
Minnesota,
all 8 of the city's cameras were stolen,
and in Connecticut,
the governor and some state senators are considering a
moratorium on these cameras until privacy concerns are addressed.
The
issue is that just continue to keep
proliferating,
and they keep springing up like dandelions in the spring.
In a statement to ABC News today,
the CEO of Flock,
Garrett,
Langley
maintains the company's products help solve
serious crimes and protect communities,
adding Flock condemns any misuse of the cameras,
and in a recorded statement sent to ABC affiliate WTNH,
Langley also saying this
The debate of
privacy and safety is an important one,
and at Flock we believe they can coexist.
There are also several cases of police officers
allegedly misusing the FL system across the country,
including a former officer in North Carolina who's accused of
using it to track the movements of her boyfriend's ex-wife,
Rena Roy,
ABC News,
New York.