A US-based communications and surveillance company. Its surveillance products are used in US prisons, along the US–Mexico border, and by US police departments. Its equipment is installed in illegal Israeli settlements and along the separation wall in the occupied West Bank and is used by the Israeli military, police, and prison service.
Motorola Solutions, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, is a communications and surveillance company. It is the legal successor of Motorola Inc., which split into Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility in 2011. Motorola Mobility, which assumed the company’s consumer products, such as mobile phones and modems, was acquired by Google in 2012 and then by Lenovo in 2014.
Between 2016 and 2020, through a series of acquisitions, Motorola Solutions has transformed from a communications company into a mass surveillance company, deepening its already strong relationships with police and immigration authorities. Within these eight years, Motorola has spent more than $1.8 billion to acquire multiple surveillance companies:
- Avigilon Corporation: A manufacturer of surveillance cameras that scan and analyze video footage for specific people and vehicles in real time.
- Pelco: A video surveillance company that manufactures police surveillance and prison security camera systems.
- Spillman Technologies: A records management software for prisons and law enforcement agencies.
- VaaS International Holdings: The parent company of Vigilant Solutions, which makes automated license plate readers, and of Edesix, a body camera manufacturer.
- WatchGuard Video: A manufacturer of police-worn and in-car cameras.
Motorola markets and sells these surveillance systems and technologies to militaries, jails, prisons, immigration detention centers and enforcement authorities, and police departments. The ACLU has described the concentration of Motorola’s surveillance capabilities as “a scary prospect.”
Mass Surveillance of Immigrants
Motorola Solutions subsidiary Vigilant Solutions is a leading supplier of license plate recognition software and data used by U.S. police agencies that, in turn, share this information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to facilitate deportations. In addition, Vigilant provides facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies. Vigilant Solutions was established in 2005 in Livermore, Calif., as a law enforcement intelligence provider. Motorola acquired the owner of Vigilant Solutions, VaaS International Holdings, in 2019.
Vigilant Solutions manages and operates a network of automated license plate readers— high-speed, computer-controlled cameras that automatically capture all license plate numbers that come into view, along with location and timestamp data—across “the most populous 50 metropolitan areas” in the U.S. These cameras scan at least 1.24 million vehicles per day.
Data from these scans are stored in Vigilant’s ALPR database, the Law Enforcement Archival Reporting Network and National Vehicle Location Service, or LEARN-NVLS. The database receives license plate data from more than 500 government agencies in the U.S., namely police departments, and includes some 1.5 billion records as of 2019. This data is automatically shared with all law enforcement agencies that have access to the system, including ICE, which uses it to conduct investigations. With this database, ICE can map people’s travel patterns and schedules, their home and work addresses, and their social networks. In its marketing materials, Vigilant claims that sharing data through its database is “as easy as adding a friend on your favorite social media platform.” In one example, Vigilant’s cameras collected ALPR data from a shopping mall in Orange County, which local police then shared this information with ICE.
Vigilant Solutions’ database is increasingly expanding through data collected by private sources, such as repossession and towing companies, insurance companies, and parking lots. Vigilant Solutions’ commercial database contains over 5 billion records as of 2019 and grows by an average of 150 to 200 million scans each month.
Between 2010 and 2022, ICE accessed Vigilant Solutions’ LEARN-NVLS ALPR database through Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting (CLEAR), a vast database of public and proprietary information offered by Thomson Reuters subsidiary West Publishing Corporation. ICE used CLEAR as part of its Law Enforcement Investigative Database Subscription (LEIDS), “a robust analytical research tool for its in-depth exploration of persons of interest and vehicles.” West Publishing Corporation began integrating Vigilant’s license plate data into its CLEAR database in 2017. That same year, West Publishing signed a $6.8 million contract with ICE, granting it access to Vigilant Solutions’ license plate reader database. The agency used this database to surveil immigrants and carry out deportation operations. Less than four months after signing the contract, more than 9,200 ICE employees had accounts on Vigilant Solutions’ database. As part of its contract, Vigilant Solutions provided ICE with training materials, including an interactive map of law enforcement agencies that use the company’s software and a step-by-step guide to request access from local police.
In 2021, ICE replaced Thomson Reuters’ CLEAR with Accurint, a competing database by LexisNexis. However, Thomson Reuters continues to provide ICE with the license plate reader database component of LEIDS, serving as a third-party contractor for Vigilant Solutions. ICE has a $22.8 million contract for the license plate reader database through 2026.
Integrated into the ALPR systems Vigilant provides to law enforcement is facial recognition technology and an image database. Facial recognition technology has been demonstrated to yield false matches disproportionately for people of color leading to wrongful arrests.
In addition to its contract with Vigilant Solutions, ICE has purchased over $140.4 million worth of equipment—namely for radio systems and other communications devices—from Motorola Solutions.
Border Monitoring and Surveillance
Motorola Solutions has supplied U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with several technologies used to support and expand the militarization of the U.S.–Mexico border. Between 2008 and July 2024, CBP awarded Motorola Solutions over $391.3 million worth of contracts. The majority of these contracts have been for radio communication systems, which Motorola provides to Border Patrol agents and the coast guard.
Another product Motorola Solutions markets to CBP is Border Protect, a data streamlining platform advertised for use at border crossings, checkpoints, and airport customs. This system consists of video surveillance, radar, sensor, cybersecurity, and identification systems that use biometrics and facial recognition. It was specifically created to facilitate surveillance at the border, build cases for deportation, and easily share information across state and local law enforcement agencies. We have no indication whether or not CBP actually uses this system.
The Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Motorola Solutions has had close relationships with the Israeli government and its security agencies for decades. It entered the Israeli market in 1964 and established an R&D center in Israel in 1972, its first outside the U.S.
Motorola Solutions’ surveillance equipment has been installed in illegal Israeli settlements and along the separation wall in the occupied West Bank, in Gaza, and at Israeli military bases. In 2005, Israel’s Ministry of Defense (IMOD) awarded the company a contract to provide a “virtual fence system,” called the MotoEagle Wide Area Surveillance System, to dozens of illegal settlements. The system includes radars and cameras that can detect movement outside settlements. It was installed as part of Israel’s “Special Security Area” plan, under which Palestinians are prevented access to areas around certain illegal settlements, even if it is their land. In some cases, Motorola’s radar stations were erected on privately owned Palestinian land. The MotoEagle system is installed in at least 25 settlements as of 2016, according to Who Profits.
Motorola has also been involved in other projects in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. For example, it provided communications systems and maintenance to several of the largest settlements, including Modi'in Illit and the Mateh Binyamin Regional Councils, in 2019. Before that, it provided communications systems to Beitar Illit, Efrat, and the Gush Etzion Regional Council. In 2018, it was contracted to provide technological security products to the settlements of Ariel and Kiryat Arba.
In 2023, the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner included Motorola Solutions in a database of companies involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. The U.N. identified the company as being involved in the provision of services and utilities “supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport,” and the “supply of security services, equipment and materials to enterprises operating in settlements.” The company was included in an earlier version of this database in 2020.
Motorola Solutions also has also contracted with Israel Railways for providing Wi-Fi internet servers to all of Israel’s train stations and cars and for providing internal communications systems. The railway’s Tel Aviv–Jerusalem line cuts through the occupied West Bank, including privately owned Palestinian lands. Any use of occupied Palestinian land and resources for an exclusively Israeli transportation project is illegal by international law.
In addition to its business in the occupied Palestinian territory, Motorola Solutions is the sole supplier of the Israeli military’s 4G cellular network, according to Who Profits. In 2014, it developed a customized encrypted cellular communication system for Israel’s security forces. In 2014, Motorola signed a 15-year, $100 million contract with the Israeli Defense Ministry for developing an encrypted smartphone system for the Israeli military and security forces. Half of this contract is funded using the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Based on Motorola’s Lex M20 smartphone, the system became operational in 2016 and works on a private LTE (4G) cellular network provided by Motorola, in partnership with Ericsson and Partner Communications. It replaced the Israeli military’s Mountain Rose communications system, which was also provided by Motorola since 2002. As of 2020, Motorola has reportedly been lobbying the Israeli military to upgrade its communication system to 5G for almost $500 million.
Motorola Solutions has also provided the Israel Police with its main tactical communications system, “Nitzan,” which includes designated communication towers, an internal wireless network, and Motorola’s ASTRO 25 two-way radios as the end-point devices. In 2013, the system was documented being used during arrests of Palestinian protesters in occupied East Jerusalem. Motorola Solutions was first selected as the system contractor in 2010 and has been contracted repeatedly for system upgrades, enhancements, and maintenance, and to add other security forces to the network, including military units and the Israeli Prison Service.
The company has additional contracts with the Israel Prison Service and the Population and Immigration Authority, both of which play critical roles in Israel’s occupation apparatus. Motorola Solutions has provided communications systems to the Israel Prison Service since at least 2008, including for use at Ofer Prison, a prison in the occupied West Bank that holds Palestinian political prisoners.
Previously, Motorola Solutions Israel developed military technology components, including electronic fuses for aircraft bombs and guided munitions for the Israeli Air Force and other major Israeli military industries. The company’s Government Electronics Department, which was responsible for these business activities, was sold to Aeronautics in 2009.
US Prison Security and Surveillance
Motorola Solutions provides several surveillance, security, and communications services to U.S. federal, state, and county prisons and jails. The company’s flagship product for the prison industry is the CommandCentral Jail, previously known as OffenderTrak, which automates tracking and activity alerts within prisons and enables prison officials and police agencies to share information about incarcerated individuals. The system uses biometrics and facial recognition to verify identities and monitor people’s activities within the prison.
CommandCentral Jail System is based on a product developed by Spillman Technologies, which Motorola Solutions acquired in 2016. A year after the acquisition, Spillman Technologies was providing its surveillance software to over 1,900 law enforcement agencies across 43 states. Prison and jail authorities that have used OffenderTrak, Motorola’s legacy prison management system, include Hawaii, Mississippi, Virginia, and many cities and counties across the U.S.
Motorola Solutions subsidiary Pelco, acquired in 2020, designs jail and prison security cameras, including “enhanced” prison cell cameras and thermal cameras for “detect[ing] threats around a prison’s perimeter.” The company’s security cameras have been used in numerous U.S. prisons and jails, including in California, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Another Motorola Solutions subsidiary, Avigilon, serves as a subcontractor for companies that provide surveillance systems to U.S. prisons and jails, including immigration jails. For example, Johnson Controls Security Solutions, which was contracted to provide surveillance systems for prisons, county jails, and immigration detention centers in New York until August 2024, uses Avigilon’s system. Kansas City–based company Sound Products has also provided surveillance systems equipped with Avigilon cameras to at least three prisons in Kansas and Missouri.
Motorola Solutions has provided the Federal Bureau of Prisons with over $162.7 million in equipment—primarily radio systems and other communications equipment. The company has also sponsored prison industry organizations and exhibited its products at prison industry events. In 2023, for example, Motorola Solutions exhibited its communications and surveillance equipment at an American Correctional Association event in Philadelphia.
US Police Surveillance and Militarization
Motorola provides police agencies with a number of technologies for mass surveillance. According to company documents, Motorola Solutions has been partnering with police departments since the 1930s. The company facilitates the militarization of police through encouraging local police departments to apply for Department of Homeland Security grants to receive military-grade Motorola equipment while bypassing the type of oversight that comes with state/local funding.
One of the main technologies Motorola Solutions provides to police is in-car and body-worn cameras. In 2019, the company acquired WatchGuard, a body camera manufacturer that has provided its cameras to multiple police departments in the U.S., including the Houston and Detroit police departments. Following the 2019 acquisition, Motorola Solutions began providing body cameras to at least three more police departments. In 2023, the company launched its “next-generation” body cameras, equipped with mobile broadband capabilities for providing police agencies with real-time information. It has also been working to integrate facial and vehicle recognition into its police cameras since 2017, which would allow police to search for and track people in real time.
Motorola Solutions also sells surveillance drone software to police departments. The company developed drone-specific intelligence software that enables real-time video screening and license plate recognition for tracking and surveilling people’s movements. The company has sold these drones to police departments in Chula Vista, Calif., Brookhaven, Ga., Tijuana, Mexico, and elsewhere.
In addition, Motorola Solutions provides police agencies with data analysis and cloud storage software that can aggregate, index, and organize mass amounts of information from social media, video surveillance, license plate readers, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems, facial recognition tools, and more. For example, the company has marketed its Real Time Operations Center (ROTC) and CommandCentral Aware, used by, for example, the Dallas Police Department and Michigan State Police.
The company also offers CityProtect, which allows the public to register cameras installed in homes and businesses with police departments in order to make footage available for police investigations. Motorola Solutions provides this service to hundreds of police agencies.
Motorola Solutions also manufactures computer-aided dispatch (CD) and communications systems, including ASTRO P25 radio systems and LTE smartphones made exclusively for police to access and share information. These CAD and communications systems have been used by police departments across the U.S., including by the Oakland Police Department.
- In March 2022, the Alma Mater Society, a student union at the university of British Columbia, passed a motion demanding that the university divest from nine companies complicit in human rights violations as part of the Israeli occupation of Palestine: Motorola Solutions Inc, General Mills Inc, Partner Communications LTD, Bezeq the Israeli Telecommunications Corporation, Cellcom Israel Ltd, Bank Hapoalim BM, Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, and Lockheed Martin.
- In July 2021, Norway's largest pension fund KLP announced that it would divest assets in 16 companies that "contribute[d] to violations of human rights in war and conflict situations through their affiliation with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank." The companies that KLP named include Alstom, Altice Europe, Ashtrom, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bank Mizrahi Tefahot, Bezeq, Cellcom, Delek, Electra, Energix Renewable Energies, First Interntional Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, Motorola, Partner, and Paz Oil Company. KLP held investments totaling approximately $31.8 million in the companies at the time of its decision.
- In November 2020, San Francsico State University's student government passed a resolution calling for the university to pull out of investments in companies that do business in Israeli settlements, referencing the 112 companies linked to the illegal settlements in Palestine as listed by the United Nations.
- In October 2020, Fresno State University’s student government voted in favor of a divestment resolution calling for the university to divest from the 112 companies linked to the illegal settlements in Palestine, as listed by the United Nations.
- In December 2019, the Brown University Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Practices passed a recommendation that the University divest from companies facilitating human rights abuses in Palestine including Motorola.
- In October 2019, the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church adopted and implemented a global human rights investment screen, with criteria for Israel/Palestine conflict, including divesting immediately from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and the Israel Discount Bank.
- In June 2019, Richmond City Council voted to end the city’s five-year contract with Vigilant Solutions over concerns that the company was sharing data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- On April 23, 2019 Berkeley City Council passed Sanctuary Contracting Ordinance on Tuesday after months of postponement. It is designed to prevent the city from entering into contracts with businesses that act as data brokers or provide extreme vetting services to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Motorola is likely to be included in the ordinance as Motorola is listed as an ICE Data Broker by the #DeportICE Data Broker public campaign.
- On May 23, 2018, student government of the California State University- East Bay unanimously endorsed a divestment resolution calling to divest from corporations profiting from the occupation of Palestine. The companies listed include Motorola Solutions, G4S, Hewlett Packard, and Caterpillar.
- On May 23, 2018, the student senate at the University of Oregon passed a resolution to divest from companies including the Strauss Group, the Osem Group, Hewlett-Packard Company, Ahava, General Electric, Eden Springs, Motorola, G4S, Elbit Systems. The resolution also prohibited the purchase of products from Sabra, Tribe, Sodastream, and the companies listed above.
- On March 7, 2018, Sampension, a Danish pension fund, divested from Motorola over its ties to Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
- In February 2018, Alameda City Council voted against a proposal to install Vigilant Soultion’s license plate readers over concerns that the company was sharing data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- On March 15, 2017, the De Anza College Associated Student Body (DASB) passed a resolution to "divest from companies that violate international human rights law" in Palestine, naming specifically Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, G4S, and Motorola Solutions. This was the first community college to pass a divestment resolution related to human rights violations in Palestine. Students for Justice, the group that presented the resolution, told DASB that "by asking De Anza to divest, you are asking them to no longer take a side in this conflict."
- On April 12, 2016, the College Council of the University of Chicago passed a resolution to Divest University funds from apartheid, urging the university “ to withdraw, within the bounds of their fiduciary duty, investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments with holdings in companies profiting from human rights abuses and violations of international law in Palestine, including, Motorola Solution."
- March 25, 2016, The Unitarian Universalist Association and its endowment fund have implemented a human rights screen and divested from companies complicit in human rights violations, including Motorola Solutions.
- On March 9, 2016, Palestinian activists led by Bassem Al-Tamimi filed a $34.5 billion civil lawsuit in D.C. against individuals and companies that have been "funding violent settlement activities in occupied Palestine." The lawsuit names several defendants, including G4S, RE/MAX, Africa Israel Investments, Motorola, Volvo, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, Oracle Corp., and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
- On March 6, 2016, the Vassar Student Association voted to support the international BDS movement and to divest from companies profiting from Israeli human rights abuses, including Motorola Solutions.
- November 2015 the student government at San Jose State University voted to divest from "companies that play an active role in the human rights violations committed by the Israeli Government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories" including Motorola.
- In October 2015 the Human Rights Council of the city of Portland, Oregon demanded that the City Socially Responsible Investments Committee Motorola Solutions on the city's "Do Not Buy" list due to its complicity in "serious human rights violations in the ongoing illegal and brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land."
- In April 2015 the Student Senate of Earham College passed a resolution in support of divestment from companies "directly involved in the Israeli Occupation of Palestine," including Motorola.
- In February 2014, Luxembourg's national pension fund excluded Motorola from its list of investments because of its “association to financing illegal settlements in occupied territories.”
- In June of 2014, the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly voted to divest from Motorola, citing ten years of unsuccessful engagement with the corporation on its involvement in home demolitions and other human rights violations in Israel/Palestine.
- Wesleyan University's student senate in 2014 voted to divest the student endowment from Motorola, declaring the company “complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine.”
- In 2012, Swedish pension funds AP 1-4 began an engagement with Motorola over the surveillance systems it provides to West Bank settlements that “contravene international humanitarian law.”
- Graduate students at Canada’s Carleton University voted in a 2012 referendum to divest the university’s pension from Motorola, citing its involvement in “illegal military occupations and other violations of international law.”
- Undergraduate students at Arizona State University, in June 2012, voted to divest from and blacklist Motorola due to its “complicit[y] in human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian Territories.”
- The Board of Trustees at Hampshire College, following a two-year student campaign, approved divestment from Motorola due to “human rights concerns in occupied Palestine.”
- Dutch Triodos Bank, in 2008, stated "Triodos explicitly excludes companies that contribute to the continuation of occupation, like Motorola."