Infrastructures of Control

Arizona Highway 92, Sierra Vista Southeast, AZ

31.391360, -110.231729

Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR)

Dugan Meyer, May 2024

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are widely used throughout the US borderlands and, increasingly, in communities all across the country. Along the southern border, ALPRs are deployed in a variety of ways: Increasingly integrated into police vehicles themselves, stationary deployments of the technology at Border Patrol checkpoints and alongside highways and roads throughout the region remain common. Sometimes the technology operates from specially made trailers, two-wheeled units that can be pulled behind vehicles via hitch and then parked, like the portable security camera units increasingly ubiquitous in retail parking lots. In other cases, they are disguised within other objects, like traffic construction or—as is the case here—impact attenuator sand barrels.

CBP refers to these disguised deployments as Covert LPRs, and in a 2017 Privacy Impact Assessment says that they are "designed to be used for a set period of time while CBP is conducting an investigation of an area or smuggling route [and that] once that investigation is complete, or the illicit activity has stopped in that area, the covert cameras are removed" (CBP 2017: 5). It should come as no surprise that the agency apparently rarely actually completes such investigations—we have found covert ALPRs visible on Google Street View in the same spot they are today going back to 2012.

In the past year, we have documented concealed and conspicuous ALPRs in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. They are positioned on residential roads, county and state highways, and interstates. Some have been operating in the same spot for years. None display any information identifying the police agency to which they belong. A separate power unit typically sits a few yards from the ALPR itself (this is also sometimes concealed), and remote (commonly referred to as "trail") cameras are often positioned nearby to surreptitiously watch over the equipment.

Map of known Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). Blue labels represent ALPRs in operation at U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ports of entry (POEs); red labels represent stand-alone ALPRs operating elsewhere. Most of the stand-alone ALPRs are disguised as other things, such as traffic construction barrels. See full map view for more information.

An automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) on the north side of NM-9/Anapra Rd. just east of Columbus, New Mexico (at 31.830694, -107.622250) in May 2024.

Automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems—one disguised as a traffic construction barrel and the other held aloft on the trailer beside it—on the side of California State Route 98 on the west side of Calexico, California (at 32.679361, -115.549806) in September 2024.

Automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems disguised as traffic construction barrels on the north and south sides of California State Route 98 in Mt. Signal on the western outskirts of Calexico, California in September 2024.

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as a traffic construction barrel on the south side of California State Route 98 in Mt. Signal on the western outskirts of Calexico, California (at 32.678333, -115.674250) in September 2024. A remote camera guarding the system is visible in the foreground.

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as a traffic construction barrel on the north side of California State Route 98 in Mt. Signal on the western outskirts of Calexico, Califronia (at 32.678417, -115.674417)

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system on the southwest side of Wueste Rd on the western shore of Lower Otay Lake in Chula Vista, California (at 32.632833, -116.934139) in March 2024.

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as a traffic construction barrel on the east side of westbound I-8 in Boulder Park (east of Jacumba and west of Ocotillo), California (at 32.656306, -116.098472) in September 2024.

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as a traffic construction barrel on the north side of California State Route 98 in Bonds Corner on the eastern outskirts of Calexico, California (at 32.693806, -115.374639) in September 2024. Another ALPR system is hidden in the barrel visible on the south side of the road. The system is powered by the trailer unit on the left, which supports a solar panel. A remote camera watches over the system from the utility pole behind the trailer unit.

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as an impact attenuator sand barrel, alongside the westbound route of I-10 in Cochise County, Arizona (at 32.357389, -109.612556) in May 2024. The barrel on the left, on the north side of the interstate, did not have an ALPR system inside when this photo was taken, but an ALPR was present in the barrel on the other side. A remote camera can also be seen affixed to one of the posts of the guardrail on the left.

A metal equipment box, secured with two small padlocks on the opposite side and connected via cables with the covert ALPR setup pictured in the previous image alongside I-10 in Cochise County, Arizona. The box can be seen via Google Street View here.

A remote camera hidden on a small tree watches over the equipment box pictured in the previous image. The camera can be seen via Google Street View here.

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as a construction barrel on the east side of US Route 95 in Fortuna Foothills, just outside of Yuma, Arizona (at 32.706111, -114.434472), in September 2024. A trailer unit with a solar panel (visible here), which supplies power to the ALPR system, sits a few meters away down the embankment. A remote camera guarding the system is visible in the foreground near the base of the construction barrel, attached to one of the wooden guardrail posts (and pictured in the following image).

A remote camera guarding the covert automated license plate reader (ALPR) system pictured in the previous photo (on US Route 95 in Fortuna Foothills, just outside of Yuma, Arizona (at 32.706111, -114.434472).

An automated license plate reader (ALPR) system disguised as a traffic barrel on the side of westbound U.S. Interstate 8 / Kumeyaay Highway in Algodones Dunes, California (at 32.708806, -114.948750) in September 2024.