Milwaukee's license plate readers face courtroom challenge

The use of automated license plate reader cameras is now facing a courtroom challenge here in Wisconsin. As Fox's Tony Langfellow reports, a lawsuit has been filed against four municipalities, including Milwaukee, over privacy concerns tied to the cameras. The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are taking legal action against Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha. They're asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to require warrants for searches of data collected by automatic license plate reader cameras, like Flock cameras. Jurisdictions across the country share the information and it can be used by any police departments or government entity that it's shared with to track an individual's location history. The ACLU is filing on behalf of the Wisconsin Council of Churches and Green Bay Pastor Melissa Pagel. WCC represents over 2,000 church congregations in Wisconsin. ACLU Staff Attorney Wes Haslam says the churches offer programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Domestic Violence. The concern is these cameras infringe on privacy rights. These are things where the people attending these services would have a reasonable expectation that the government is not monitoring them, attending them, and does not know about it. Haslam says the goal of the lawsuit is to require the government to obtain a warrant to use data from these ALPR cameras. Wisconsin has seen previous cases of law enforcement officers misusing data, most notably used for stalking. What we'd like to see is that there be some judicial restraints placed on the use of this mass surveillance technology. We don't want law enforcement entities being able to self-police. Flock Safety is the ALPR camera company Green Bay currently uses. Fox 11 asked the city of Green Bay for an interview, but said it does not comment on pending litigation. Fox 11 also emailed Flock to ask its thoughts on the lawsuit and what safeguards are in place to prevent the misuse of data. No one was available. Instead, Flock sent a statement which reads in part, more than 45 courts have determined that fixed license plate readers do not violate the Fourth Amendment or track the whole of an individual's movements. It went on to say Flock cameras do not use facial recognition or identify vehicle occupants. The ACLU hopes the case leads to better transparency and accountability of how law enforcement uses technology. In Green Bay, Tony Langfellow, Fox 11 News.