The entire system is based on the license plate database being connected to all of the automated plate readers. All it took for this to become a problem was for part of that not to stay safe. Since the license plate database isn’t, anyone can create a fake license plate, pop it on a similar-looking vehicle, and the collected data is tainted. All those people who had nothing to hide now have a system that assumes they were driving illegally, causing accidents, etc. They are facing actual fines, increased insurance costs, and possible arrests because of surveillance data that’s been hacked. Data that should show them as innocent but false information has been injected into it.