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Show HN: Automated license plate reader coverage in the USA

(alpranalysis.com)
239 points sodality2 | 2 comments | 10 Dec 25 17:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.002s | source

Built this over the last few days, based on a Rust codebase that parses the latest ALPR reports from OpenStreetMaps, calculates navigation statistics from every tagged residential building to nearby amenities, and tests each route for intersection with those ALPR cameras (Flock being the most widespread).

These have gotten more controversial in recent months, due to their indiscriminate large scale data collection, with 404 Media publishing many original pieces (https://www.404media.co/tag/flock/) about their adoption and (ab)use across the country. I wanted to use open source datasets to track the rapid expansion, especially per-county, as this data can be crucial for 'deflock' movements to petition counties and city governments to ban and remove them.

In some counties, the tracking becomes so widespread that most people can't go anywhere without being photographed. This includes possibly sensitive areas, like places of worship and medical facilities.

The argument for their legality rests upon the notion that these cameras are equivalent to 'mere observation', but the enormous scope and data sharing agreements in place to share and access millions of records without warrants blurs the lines of the fourth amendment.

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yannyu ◴[10 Dec 25 20:28 UTC] No.46223289[source]▶
I've thought about this a lot as I see more and more reckless driving in the areas I live in. Surveillance is generally a net negative, but it's also bad when you see people speeding around schools, rolling through stop signs, and running red lights. We seem to have a worst of all situations where traffic is getting increasingly difficult to enforce, driving is getting more dangerous year by year, and we're terrified of government overreach if we add any automation at all to enforcement.

I don't know the solution, but I do know that in the US we've lost 10-15 years of progress when it comes to traffic fatalities.

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ajross ◴[10 Dec 25 21:34 UTC] No.46224204[source]▶
> driving is getting more dangerous year by year

Not over the long term, no. There may have been a recent uptick in the post-pandemic US but it's mostly just noise. Fatalities per mile driven have been going down markedly in recent decades. Driving was twice as dangerous in the 80's as it is now.

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hamdingers ◴[10 Dec 25 21:53 UTC] No.46224411[source]▶
You are incorrect. Fatalities in the US leveled out in the early 2010s and have been climbing since then. In all other developed nations they continued trending downwards.

This is not a statistical anomaly that can be handwaved by pointing out that things were worse 40 years ago. Roads in the US are uniquely lethal and getting moreso.

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ajross ◴[10 Dec 25 22:49 UTC] No.46225098[source]▶
> You are incorrect

Sigh. I hate that phrasing. But OK, fine: you are misreading me, misanalysing the data, or just plain spinning to mislead readers.

Fatalities per capita and per mile driven go steadily downward until covid, and maybe there's a bump after that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in... If you have numbers (you don't cite any) showing otherwise, they are being polluted by demographic trends (the US having higher population growth doesn't say anything about driver behavior).

> Roads in the US are uniquely lethal and getting moreso.

So spinning it is. Would you rather drive in Germany in 2002 or the US in 2025? Seems like "uniquely lethal" doesn't really constitute a good faith representation of the truth.

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selectodude ◴[10 Dec 25 23:29 UTC] No.46225535[source]▶
According to the link that you posted, the roads in Germany in 2002 were quite a bit safer than the roads are in the USA in 2025. And they don’t have speed limits. Absolute no brainer to me.

Anyway, not to pile on but you are absolutely incorrect. Forgive the phrasing.

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1. shiroiuma ◴[11 Dec 25 08:26 UTC] No.46228937[source]▶
German roads absolutely do have speed limits. Only certain rural sections of the Autobahn don't, but that's not representative of the country as a whole, or even the Autobahn as a whole.
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2. selectodude ◴[11 Dec 25 15:57 UTC] No.46232967[source]▶
In 2002, significant portions of the Autobahn were unlimited. That's changed in the past 25 years, of course.