The High Crime of "LMAO": How Cops Are Treating Mass Surveillance as a Joke

An EFF analysis of automated license plate reader (ALPR) search logs is using a striking example to show how police treat mass surveillance: a Goshen Police Department officer searched 6,474 ALPR networks, representing data from 82,413 cameras, on May 7, 2025, and left 'idk' in the field where officers are supposed to document the reason for the search. The excerpt contrasts that with the sales pitch from law enforcement and vendors such as Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, and Axon, who tell city councils ALPRs are essential for solving high-stakes crimes like carjacking, kidnapping, or murder.

According to the EFF analysis, officers across the country are routinely searching Flock Safety's database without any legitimate justification, logging reasons like 'LOL,' 'LMAO,' 'sexy,' and 'idk' to access sensitive ALPR location data. In some cases, officers just mash keyboard buttons instead of articulating the nature of their searches. Flock Safety says it has improved its system by requiring officers to select from a dropdown list of crimes before running a search, but the excerpt argues that only makes it easier to hide improper searches behind a veneer of uniformity, because the system does not require proof that the dropdown reason matches the true purpose of the search.

The piece says that with no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone's location information. That culture, it argues, lets police treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine, permitting the tracking of everyday citizens' movements for low-level complaints, personal whims, and sometimes seemingly for the lols.

ALPR misuse is not new, the excerpt notes: it has dominated headlines for more than a year. Officers have regularly abused these systems to stalk past and potential romantic partners; ALPRs have been used to surveil protests, chilling First Amendment-protected dissent; and officers have tried to use an ALPR system to track down a woman seeking an abortion. These uses typically surface through 'network audits,' long spreadsheets documenting all searches run through an agency's system—even a small agency can have millions of searches from thousands of external agencies across the United States. The excerpt also references previously uncovered horrific systemic profiling, though it cuts off mid-sentence at 'more than 80 la...'.