Police are using drones as flying automated license plate readers (Alp-rs), according to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

And where there is a market, a provider will jump in. Or was it the other way around this time? Flock Safety, for example, recently told a group of potential law enforcement customers interested in Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs that its drone can be used as a flying license plate reader camera as well.

An ALPR system is an intelligent surveillance system that automatically identifies and documents license plates of vehicles by using optical character recognition. This is not necessary for the drones’ main task—it’s an extra feature.

Police using drones to read your license plates, warns EFF | Malwarebytes