PlatePatrol

PlatePatrol is a mass surveillance software system, which identifies vehicles, and tracks their travels through assorted video feeds. Unlike Flock, Axon, and other popular vendors which use their own hardware for vehicle tracking, PlatePatrol uses video feeds from other companies' cameras.

Technical specifics

PlatePatrol uses a Yolov8 pre-trained AI model (YOLOv8n) to detect and identify vehicles. It then utilizes the SORT (Simple Online and Realtime Tracking) algorithm for tracking of vehicles as they pass from one camera feed to another. Of course, it also performs automated license plate reader (ALPR) scanning so that data can be attached to each vehicle it tracks. PlatePatrol can also be used in the form of a smartphone application, or connected to the dashcams on government vehicles.

Legal and Privacy issues

Although the AI-powered mass surveillance which PlatePatrol offers can be useful, it comes with some significant legal and ethical problems. The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution provides strong protections against "unreasonable searches and seizures," without a legal warrant, which clearly defines who is being subjected to a search, what place will be searched, and the duration of the search. It also needs to be signed by a judge. Based on legal precedent, tracking the movements of a person over time, is a form of a search, which therefore requires a specific and limited search warrant.