License plate readers are helping ICE track people on the Western Slope

In places like the Western Slope, immigration arrests are quietly increasing, usually with little media attention. The expansion of license plate readers is helping.

Automated License Plate Reader technology allows police agencies, cities and private companies to set up cameras and automatically track passing cars, logging every license plate in a database.

These camera systems claim to help law enforcement identify stolen vehicles, but they can also show where someone has been, or even where they are.

Over the last year, evidence has shown that the databases created by the cameras are being accessed by ICE agents to find individuals to detain and deport — including here in Colorado. Yet many community members still do not realize how much they are being watched.

In Colorado, the reach of these cameras has infiltrated all of our daily lives. These camera systems are used by local governments, including Mesa County, Grand Junction, Silt, Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Avon and Summit County, as well as businesses like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Walmart. 

Walmart operates about 82 stores in Colorado, including at least seven on the Western Slope. Lowe’s and Home Depot also operate in our rural communities. All three of these retail companies have policies online detailing their use of the systems and when they share the data with law enforcement agencies. Walmart, for instance, lists “responding to a request from law enforcement, search warrant, or other valid legal inquiry” as a reason it may share your data.

Even when agencies and cities say they are not sharing data with the federal government, they often have little control over these third-party databases. Journalists have found examples across the country where federal agents are able to gain access to the data, even through friendships with members of local law enforcement.

Even without these databases, we already know that law enforcement agencies on the Western Slope, such as the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, are repeatedly collaborating with ICE agents, even when it appears to violate state law.

This erosion of privacy is not keeping anyone safe. It is helping ICE target people living peacefully in our communities. And even though this type of immigration enforcement gets less attention than violent mass raids in some cities, it still disrupts our communities and violates our rights.

Published records show that local police accessed this type of data five times while assisting federal agents in detaining a 19-year-old college student in Mesa County after pulling her over and letting her go. Local police apparently accessed camera databases to help federal agents track her movements after the stop.

The same officers who accessed that data were also involved in the arrest of a man, Luis, at a Walmart in Glenwood Springs. He said he had been followed. We have also received numerous reports of people being pulled over by immigration agents who appear to be conducting traffic stops. People sometimes report that agents already know the name of the person in the vehicle or, like Luis, that they had noticed they were being followed. It is likely that agents are using these camera databases to track people in many of these cases.

One of the camera systems that has drawn the most attention is run by a company called Flock Safety. But Flock is not the only vendor. These camera systems are already operating in communities across the Western Slope.

Know whether your town has installed cameras on its streets. Know where cameras are posted along the interstate. Know which stores are using them in their parking lots. Every time you drive those roads or pull into those lots, you may be tracked. If you do not accept that, use your voice and demand that your elected officials remove these systems from your community.

Does your community have street cameras? Share your story here.