Investigation Solicits Public Records to Map Police Use of Axon License Plate Readers
Following municipal departures from rival vendor Flock Safety, an open-records initiative seeks audit logs detailing law enforcement queries across Axon's surveillance network.
Investigative news organization 404 Media has launched a nationwide initiative to audit how municipal police departments use automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems made by law enforcement contractor Axon, according to a report circulated on Hacker News (https://www.404media.co/is-your-city-using-axon-license-plate-cameras-we-need-your-help/). The crowdsourced public records campaign comes as several local governments replace hardware from competing provider Flock Safety with Axon systems.
The shift away from Flock follows reporting on surveillance queries conducted across its network, including lookups run on behalf of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and an instance where a Texas police officer queried nationwide camera data to track an individual who self-administered an abortion. The new effort aims to determine whether similar query practices, search rationales, and multi-agency data-sharing arrangements exist among departments using Axon's ALPR technology.
To evaluate police search behavior, the project is collecting Axon system logs that mirror Flock's network audit records. These documents include internal activity reports detailing officer names, badge numbers, queried license plate numbers, timestamps, and stated search reasons. Public records disclosures have already been secured from six law enforcement agencies: the Benton County Sheriff's Office and Ocean Shores Police Department in Washington, Maine's Falmouth Police Department, Georgia's Johns Creek Police Department, Texas's Pleasanton Police Department, and Minnesota's Red Wing Police Department.
To broaden oversight, the outlet is asking local residents to submit standardized public records requests to their regional departments directly or through freedom-of-information platform MuckRock. The requests seek administrative logs from January 1, 2025, onward across four Axon reporting modules: Internal ALPR Activity reports, Network ALPR Activity reports tracking inter-agency queries, ALPR Data Sharing reports logging external access authorizations, and ALPR Hotlist Management Audit records tracking surveillance alert modifications.
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