Rep. Boyer is right. AI license plate readers have no place in Maine

By Dylan Oliver

Accountability is finally coming for artificial intelligence in Maine. Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland recently introduced a bill to ban municipalities and police departments from using AI-powered license plate readers.

This is the right move for the Maine Legislature, and long overdue. For municipalities and police departments to use AI as a form of surveillance is a blatant act of government overreach and a violation of Mainers’ Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment clearly protects U.S. citizens from “unreasonable searches and seizures” without a warrant, yet ALPRs collect everything from a car’s location, date and time to identifying features such as bumper stickers and even small dents. AI cameras are nothing but mechanisms to unreasonably violate our privacy rights.

Across Maine and the United States, AI-powered cameras have become an increasingly popular tool used by municipalities to surveil and track the movements of innocent people. While we don’t even know the exact number of so-called “Flock” cameras, there are at least 50 stretching from Bangor to York. These systems are promoted as crime-fighting tools, but they create a loophole that doesn’t require a warrant. Law enforcement officers already have plenty of existing tools, such as cell phone location data, with which to fight crime.

At a time when AI technology is rapidly improving amid historic investment, Mainers must remain vigilant about the dangers that new-age technology can pose to the general public, starting with clear infringements of our constitutional rights.

Flock Safety, the AI-powered license plate camera company, has gone beyond just tracking cars. According to the company, its camera sensors build a “pattern of life” profile on individuals, including people never suspected of any crime. This includes drivers, pedestrians and cyclists simply going about their daily lives — from the grocery store to the gas station. Making matters worse, there is no clear policy framework for AI governance in Maine that establishes a threshold of “going too far.” Flock cameras can go as far as they want, and no one is safe.

For now at least, AI development and deployment is the Wild West mixed with Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report”. Whether it means monitoring everyday drivers’ habits or partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Flock and other AI surveillance companies are determined to deploy anywhere and everywhere with the federal, state and local government fully onboard. Palantir, Washington, D.C.’s favorite AI surveillance company, is another case study in unconditional espionage.

Fortunately, there are elected officials who still believe in the Constitution, fighting Big Government’s alliance with Big Tech on behalf of individual Americans. While such leaders are too few and far between, Boyer’s legislation would prevent Flock from going too far as an unelected corporate entity. Another state lawmaker, Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn put it plainly, “Every town and Maine citizen should be wary of how Flock cameras collect information on movements … even pedestrians and bicyclists!”

Now is the time for Maine legislators to act. Before Flock’s surveillance structure becomes too embedded to uproot, helped by the heavy hand of government bureaucracy, the technology can still be banned statewide.

There is bipartisan support for the Fourth Amendment. From Republican lawmakers to Maine’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which called Flock “a significant threat to our constitutional rights to privacy,” all Mainers should be concerned about AI-powered government surveillance. More than 100,000 ALPRs have been mapped across the United States, and dozens of U.S. cities are rejecting the cameras altogether. There is no excuse for Maine — a state that prides itself on liberty and freedom — to lag behind.

Maine has the chance to lead the nation in protecting its residents from the harms of AI technology. By banning license plate cameras at the municipal level, the Maine Legislature can take a massive leap to uphold the Constitution. The first step is to pass Boyer’s bill and eliminate automatic license plate readers for good.

A native of Hodgdon, Oliver is the social media manager at The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit organization defending humanity in the age of advanced artificial intelligence.