ALPR

Over the past year, more than 50 cities and counties across the country have canceled their contracts with Flock Safety, the company behind the automated license plate readers now bolted to streetlights in most American neighborhoods. Local news covers each cancellation as a privacy win. City councils pass resolutions. Residents who organized against the cameras get their moment at the podium. Then, within months, installation crews show up and bolt new cameras onto the same poles. They’re just wearing a different logo. ...

Every conversation I’ve had this week about license plate cameras eventually landed on the same question from someone in the comments: does this stuff monitor phones too? Up until a few weeks ago, my honest answer was no. That answer is now out of date. What SignalTrace actually is In June 2026, 404 Media broke the story on a product called SignalTrace, built by Leonardo, an Italian aerospace and defense conglomerate that already owns ELSAG, one of the established license plate reader brands competing directly with Flock and Axon in the American market. Leonardo isn’t a scrappy startup chasing a government contract. It’s a €17.8 billion company, roughly 30 percent owned by the Italian government itself, with 60,500 employees and subsidiaries spanning fighter jets, satellites, and missile systems. This is a serious, well-funded player, not a fringe vendor. ...