Full transcript
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New research from the University of
Washington's Center for Human Rights
shows US Border Patrol may have had
access to data from license plate
readers in several cities across
Washington. Police departments across
the region have been using flock cameras
to assist in criminal investigations,
but organizations like the ACLU have
been raising concerns about privacy, how
the data is being used, and who it's
being shared with. The Nigian with our
sister station has more on this story.
A new report from the UW Center for
Human Rights raising major concerns
about how data from automated license
plate readers or flock cameras is being
used by US Border Patrol.
A number of agencies had offered
one-on-one sharing of their networks
with US Border Patrol at some point
during 2025 and that a larger share of
agencies had searches of their networks
by US Border Patrol. The report showed
police departments in Arlington, Auburn,
Lakewood, and more enabled sharing of
their flock network with US Border
Patrol. And Border Patrol also had
backdoor access to data from at least 10
law enforcement agencies across the
state without those agencies explicitly
authorizing access. huge amounts of
information about the movements of
Washington state residents that
advocates fear could be used for civil
immigration enforcement, for things like
criminalization of access to
reproductive health care in Washington
state or gender affirming care in
Washington state.
Officials in Auburn and Lakewood tell KO
News they were unaware Border Patrol had
access and that access was immediately
revoked. If that's true, um, then that's
even more concerning that that the
agencies that are contracting with this
company and using it don't know what's
happening with, uh, you know, the data
from these systems.
Auburn city officials also say they're
now conducting comprehensive monthly
reviews on data exported from the
system. The ACLU of Washington has been
raising concerns about this technology
for years, advocating for more oversight
in how these systems are used.
It's crucial that lawmakers put common
sense data protections in place, such as
restrictions on how long the data can be
stored for and who can access it and who
it can be shared with.
The ACLU of Washington says there's
currently no state regulations on how
this technology can be used, how the
data is stored, and who it can be shared
with.
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