Police are reportedly pulling motorists over because AI algorithms deem their driving patterns 'suspicious'

Police are increasingly using AI-derived pretext to justify pulling drivers over, claims a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on October 26. According to Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, police are using AI algorithms and automated license plate reader (ALPR) surveillance data to flag motorists whose travel histories appear “suspicious,” even without evidence of wrongdoing.

Condemning the approach and the use of mass surveillance in general, Stanley expressed concerns that this approach to law enforcement would lead to an uptick in the controversial “pretextual stops” and that “More and more people will be subject to police encounters as these AI algorithms inevitably sweep in far more innocent people than actual wrongdoers.” The report details several incidents, including one in which a woman claims an officer stopped her during a cross-country road trip because a surveillance system he was using had flagged her movements as suspicious. The system has accessed ALPR data on where she had been driving.

ALPRs installed along roads and highways photograph passing vehicles and record their registration numbers, locations, and timestamps. By combining sightings from different cameras, law enforcement can determine where a vehicle has traveled, which routes it used, and how frequently it visited particular locations. An AI system with access to the surveillance data can quickly analyze huge amounts of data and identify patterns it has been trained to deem as “suspicious,” triggering an alert to law enforcement. Stanley implies officers may receive the alert and look for a minor traffic violation to justify pulling the driver over. In some documented cases, officers have concealed the actual reason for the stop.

The report comes amid growing concerns about the impact of massive mass surveillance camera networks, such as privacy, abuse, and limited regulation. Several officers have been fired for abusing the Flock surveillance system. License plate readers have existed for years and have traditionally helped police track known suspects or locate a vehicle already associated with a crime, such as a stolen car. However, the current scale and blanket surveillance are unprecedented. Security researchers disclosed a network of over 335,000 Flock ALPR cameras across the United States.

Using AI, systems can also now analyze large collections of vehicle movements and generate new suspects based on behavioral patterns. Companies such as Flock Safety have been developing AI-enhanced surveillance systems that can identify “unusual” travel behavior and associations between vehicles, marketing them as effective crime-prevention tools.