License Plate Surveillance Company Attacks Nonprofits For Filing FOIA

Vigilant Solutions said law enforcement is facing an "onslaught" of transparency requests from people who ... want government to be accountable to taxpayers.

Vigilant Solutions a private company that sells surveillance technology to law enforcement is telling police departments that they are being targeted and attacked by transparency groups that request public records.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and MuckRock sent each law enforcement agency that works with Vigilant just one request for public records. "No agency is experiencing an onslaught," said Dave Maass, a senior investigative researcher at EFF. He noted that each request was very narrow, and that none were for confidential documents or those that would require redactions.

As law enforcement agencies increasingly outsource their activities to contractors, it’s becoming more difficult for the public to uncover details of how government uses surveillance technology. And although private corporations like Vigilant Solutions are not subject to public records laws, their contracts and interactions with government agencies are. (Motherboard, April 4, 2018)

I previously discussed ALPRS here on February 4, 2018 in a post titled "ALPRS - You Are Being Tracked"