Special Report: Philadelphia scanned 25 million license plates, but can’t say whether the investigative tool works 8%
By Stacy M. Brown63%
8/1/2026, 9:01:00 PM
Keywords: Vehicle Registration Plate, Temple University, Josh Thomas, Philadelphia Parking Authority, Center City, Law Enforcement Databases, Investigative And Public Safety Tool, Ppds Real Time Crime Center, Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, Chief Communications Officer, Sarah T Hamid, American Civil Liberties Union, Matthew Frank, Technology Investments, Alex Durret, Philadelphia District Attorneys Office
BS Summary: This article contains 6 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Pessimism Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 16.1% saturation with 195 hits. Analysis detected 704 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,209 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 19.4% and a BS Rank of 8% (23,709 of 25,563 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.70% of the article peer group.
Twenty-five million.
That’s the number of license plates scanned so far by Philadelphia’s expanding network of automated license plate readers (ALPR) after about 100 fixed cameras started operating in fall 2024.
By January, the city has quickly expanded the program, using $5 million in grants to add over 700 automated license plate readers to police vehicles and poles throughout the city.
Each day, these cameras record passing license plates, log where and when vehicles travel and check that information against lists of stolen vehicles and other police alerts.
The city and the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) announced this week they are adding speed cameras along Route 13 in West Philadelphia.
Officials said the cameras have already been installed and are expected to begin a 60-day warning period sometime in mid-August.
Automated speed cameras are already operating on Roosevelt Boulevard, Broad Street and Frankford Avenue.
The city released the following statement on the new cameras:
“The City is committed to making our streets safer for everyone, and speeding is the most common cause of traffic fatalities: speeding kills.
The Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program is targeted and data-driven.
Speed cameras are not placed arbitrarily and are not meant to punish people: they are meant to enforce the rules of the road and decrease injuries and deaths.”
But even with this rapid growth, the Philadelphia Police Department said it does not have departmentwide, “validated” statistics on how often the technology has led directly to arrests, the recovery of stolen vehicles, the discovery of missing people or the solution of violent crimes.
In a written statement to The Tribune, the police department acknowledged: “The Department continues to expand the use of automated license plate readers as an investigative and public safety tool.
At this time, we do not have department-wide, validated statistics ready for public release.”
This means taxpayers and city officials lack access to citywide performance data for one of Philadelphia’s biggest and fastest-growing surveillance tools, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Sarah T.
Hamid, EFF’s director of strategic campaigns, says Philadelphia’s deployment of more than 700 readers “creates a massive surveillance network capable of tracking where people live, work, worship, seek medical care and participate in protests, even when they are not suspected of criminal activity.” — SUBMITTED PHOTO
The American Civil Liberties Union says automated license plate readers collect information about millions of motorists who are not suspected of crimes. — SUBMITTED PHOTO
“We’ve already seen how this mass surveillance tool can be weaponized and abused by law enforcement,” the organization said.
The EFF has urged governments to publish independent data measuring stolen vehicle recoveries, clearance rates, hit rates and other performance indicators before continuing to expand surveillance programs.
Sarah T.
Hamid, EFF’s director of strategic campaigns, said Philadelphia’s deployment of more than 700 readers “creates a massive surveillance network capable of tracking where people live, work, worship, seek medical care and participate in protests, even when they are not suspected of criminal activity.”
“It is also deeply concerning how ALPR data travels, and cloud based platforms like Flock Safety make it easy for local agencies to share location data across thousands of jurisdictions, and there are documented cases of federal immigration authorities accessing local ALPR systems in ways that undermined state and local sanctuary protections,” she told The Tribune.
“In Philadelphia, residents are facing long retention periods — up to a year for all drivers regardless of suspicion — as well as rapid expansion of the broader camera network, all with limited public transparency about who can access the data and for what purposes,” Hamid said.
She added that, too often, law enforcement officials simply echo vendor marketing to justify surveillance purchases.
“But cities should treat ALPR procurement like any other high risk policy decision, publishing a clear cost benefit analysis that weighs ALPR spending, including long term contracts and integration costs, against alternative investments in community safety, and being honest that even a modest investigative benefit may not justify building permanent infrastructure for mass location tracking,” Hamid stated.
Automated speed cameras are already operating on Roosevelt Boulevard and have helped manage driving speeds as well as reduce the number of crashes resulting in serious injury or fatalities, city officials have said. — CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PHOTO
Philadelphia’s automated license plate reader program has changed a lot in just a few years.
The city initially deployed about 100 fixed readers along major roadways.
By January, those cameras had already scanned approximately 25 million license plates.
Earlier this year, over 600 additional readers were added to patrol vehicles, bringing the total to more than 700 cameras that can scan vehicles throughout Philadelphia.
The program has also received significant funding with the city spending about $5 million in grant money to buy and install the expanded network.
This is one of Philadelphia’s biggest technology investments, aimed at helping police investigate crimes, recover stolen vehicles, and find wanted or missing people.
PPD says the technology automatically captures a license plate, records the vehicle’s date, time, and location, and compares that information against law enforcement databases.
If a vehicle appears on a hot list, officers receive an alert.
A spokesperson said the department retains ALPR records for one year, does not provide ALPR data feeds to third parties, and is updating policies governing access controls, audits, and data retention.
A second-generation system
The current rollout involves more than just adding new cameras.
According to program information, newer installations are tied to expanded infrastructure within the PPD’s Real Time Crime Center and the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center.
Officials say upgraded software and upgraded data management are intended to address shortcomings in earlier deployments while improving investigative abilities.
Earlier reports questioned the effectiveness of Philadelphia’s first license plate reader program, since millions of scans yielded only a few publicly reported stolen-vehicle recoveries or arrests.
They also looked at whether the technology gave officers timely and reliable alerts.
It is still hard to know if the larger network has improved results, since the department has not released verified performance data for the public.
Cameras all over
DeFlock says it has mapped over 117,000 automated license plate reader cameras across the U.S. using public records, open-source research, and community tips.
This is not an official government list.
“One of the big issues I have with this is that I understand that the company, Flock, keeps the data for at least a month afterward recording license plates, which is crazy because now you have police with private information and a private company with your information,” said Matthew Frank, who resides in West Philadelphia near South 43rd and Locust streets — the site of one of the hundreds of ALPRs.
“I don’t like that the information is public, and I like all of it even less than if it wasn’t recorded at all,” Frank asserted.
The PPD says it uses more than just crime statistics to decide where to put cameras.
“Camera placement decisions are informed by multiple factors, including crime data, service needs, calls for service patterns, and qualitative insights from districts,” the department spokesman wrote.
“These sites are periodically reevaluated to ensure they continue to meet public safety objectives.”
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.