The U.S. Border Patrol is using a predictive intelligence program to monitor millions of drivers across the country to identify travel patterns it deems “suspicious.” The secretive program, revealed by The Associated Press, has resulted in American drivers being detained, searched and even arrested.
The program feeds images from a network of license plate reading cameras into an algorithm that flags vehicles based on data such as their origin and travel route. Federal law enforcement officials can then alert local police agencies to initiate traffic stops.
Drivers, unaware that they were targeted by the surveillance program, are then pulled over for purported violations such as speeding, failure to signal, darkly tinted windows, or “even a dangling air freshener blocking the view,” the AP reported.
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The news agency says its investigation was based on thousands of pages of court records, government documents, law enforcement data and arrest reports. Reporters also interviewed attorneys, privacy experts, dozens of federal, state and local officials, and eight former government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The investigation also found that many cameras are concealed in construction equipment, such as yellow and orange crash barrels, and faux electrical boxes.
The scope of such programs is expected to increase as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is set to receive more than $2.7 billion in surveillance funding under the Trump administration.
Agency confirms surveillance
In response to the investigation, CBP confirmed the use of license plate-reading cameras to help identify and disrupt threats and criminal networks.
CBP said its predictive intelligence program is “governed by a stringent, multi-layered policy framework, as well as federal law and constitutional protections, to ensure the technology is applied responsibly and for clearly defined security purposes.”
While the Border Patrol once operated primarily along the Mexican and Canadian borders, the agency has expanded its reach over the years to within 100 miles of the border, including coastlines. When the AP’s investigation found the Border Patrol’s camera network present further inside the country, CBP responded by saying its officers are legally allowed to “operate anywhere in the United States.”
Suspicious behavior that can flag the attention of federal agents also includes the use of a rental car, using backcountry roads or making short trips in a border region. The CBP is also utilizing other license plate-reading cameras from private companies and other government entities, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Is this constitutional?
Although courts have deemed license plate-based surveillance legal, legal experts say the expansion of such programs calls into question their constitutionality.
Nicole Ozer, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at the University of California, San Francisco, law school, described the AP’s findings as alarming.
“They are collecting mass amounts of information about who people are, where they go, what they do, and who they know … engaging in dragnet surveillance of Americans on the streets, on the highways, in their cities, in their communities,” Ozer said. “These surveillance systems do not make communities safer.”
