License Plate Readers: Technology Lacks Safeguards against Hacking

by Eric Stromberg, 2026 Candidate for Los Alamos County Council

Every issue can be seen as a coin of two sides. So it is with the license plate readers. Have license plate readers been used to solve crimes and catch criminals? Yes, they have. Have they been used to find abducted children? Yes, they have. Wouldn’t it be nice if this “coin” only had this side? But, unfortunately, there’s another side.

The cameras communicate through the mobile phone network, the data are kept in the “cloud,” which is another name for someone else’s computer. There are extremely talented and committed hackers out there. In addition to hacking, there have also been instances where these cameras have been used by bad actors within law enforcement
for unofficial purposes. Yes, guardrails are in place, procedures for internal audits are in place, data encryption is in place, but this is only for our local LAPD users.

Companies like Axon collect far more data than they provide to LAPD, and that data never goes away and is sold to the highest bidder. Any system can be hacked, and we live in an area that is at the top of the list for hackers.

As with any technology, it must evolve to a point where the “tails” side of the coin doesn’t outweigh the “heads” side of the coin. Unfortunately, at this point, technology has not evolved to that
degree. In the meantime, the license plate readers should be taken down and put in storage.

Contact me at eric@electstromberg.com