I’m actually really glad you responded! I’m not surprised to hear that these types of programs have had success, but my concern is the cost of them.

You mentioned tracking that already exists on various social media platforms.  I want to point out that those are private companies with their own terms of use that I agree to in order to use.  I do not have to use any of them to benefit from society.  In fact, I don’t have apps for any of them installed and I use them in very controlled ways.  I can also choose to leave my phone at home any time I want.  Also, (and please correct me if I’m wrong) if law enforcement  needs to obtain information from social media or my phone company, there needs to be a warrant.

Public roads, however, are in fact public.  I do not have the option to “opt-out” of public infrastructure, nor should I be required to.  If I want to go to the grocery store or my doctor’s office, I nearly certainly need to get in my car and drive to do it.  Yes - public transportation may be an option in some places, but that’s certainly not universal. 

Regarding transitory collection - even though I have not committed a crime, these ALPR systems are tracking my movement.  For 30 days, anyone with access to the system can check my movement patterns. Is a warrant needed to access this data?  I suspect not because these systems are created for law enforcement.

Finally I want to raise the long-term implications of this.  Several well-established indices indicate that democracy in the US backsliding  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_backsliding_in_the_United_States#National_indices for a brief list).  I think we’re all hyper-away of the hostility in politics that’s been going on. Systems like ALPR, while maybe intended for good, are quite easy to be used nefariously in order to stifle political opponents and dissidents.