"People are saying, "' can’t control the NSA, but I can rein in what local law enforcement agencies are collecting,'" said Allie Bohm, an advocacy and policy strategist at the ACLU. Last July, the ACLU released a report warning about the lack of policies for license plate reader programs. The group also has promoted model legislation to limit how long police can keep license plate data.
For proponents of the technology, the timing of the NSA leaks couldn't have been worse. "I would hate to see that because of bad timing, a great technology is banned or didn't rise to the level it could have," said Todd Hodnett, the founder and chairman of Digital Recognition Network, a license plate reader manufacturer which sells the cameras to private companies, including towing firms, banks and insurance companies. An LPR system, which typically includes four cameras, costs between $15,000 and $18,000.
Lumping license plate readers in with the NSA surveillance system creates a false equivalency, according to Hodnett. "The NSA revelations have created an environment that has people on edge, but it's unfortunate and quite scary that someone could compare listening to a phone call to photographing a publicly visible license plate," he said.
Hodnett also argued the focus on data limits is misplaced, because matching a license plate to a person’s DMV records or driver's license record is a two-step process governed by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act passed by Congress in 1994. When law enforcement officers want to make a query of DMV records using a license plate number, they have to show a "permissible purpose," which includes public safety, motor vehicle theft, court proceedings or notifying owners of towed or impounded vehicles.
Until a license plate number is matched to DMV data, it’s as anonymous to officers as it is to a person standing on a street corner. That two-step process is what keeps the technology from infringing on privacy, said Robert Stevenson, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police and the retired police chief of Livonia, Mich.
"There’s an additional step that has to be taken to find out who the drivers are," said Stevenson. "People's pictures and names don’t just pop up when they drive past license plate readers."
The US Supreme Court and multiple federal courts have affirmed there is no expectation of privacy for a publicly visible license plate. Hodnett is building a case to argue that prohibiting license plate readers from taking photographs of publicly visible license plates is a violation of the First Amendment.
Tracking the Marathon Bombers
In the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers, police used license plate reader data to establish where the Tsarnaev brothers had traveled and where they might be headed, based on places they'd already been. Police used license plate readers to track Dzokhar Tsarnaev to Watertown, Mass., where police found him hiding in a boat in a resident’s backyard.
Even though LPR data was used in that investigation, Watertown's state representative is pursuing legislation to limit license plate readers. Under Democratic Rep. Jonathan Hecht's legislation, police would be required to delete license plates collected after 48 hours, but they could hang on to data longer if it was specifically part of a criminal investigation, like the search for Tsarnaev.
"Public safety is very important and we want to use new this technology for safety," said Hecht. "But as has been true throughout our history, public safety has to be balanced against other important privacy values. In wake of the revelations about the NSA, people are concerned that we’re letting technology get away from us."
*Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.
Pages: 1 · 2
More Articles
- November 1, 2023 Chair Jerome Powell’s Press Conference on Employment and Inflation
- The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022
- A la Frank Sinatra: "Come Fly With Me", U.S. Department of Transportation Airline Customer Service Dashboard
- Yale School of the Environment's Study of Environment Found "Total Indirect Emissions from Electric Vehicles Pale in Comparison to the Indirect Emissions from Fossil Fuel-powered Vehicles"
- Rose Madeline Mula Writes: I’ve Got A Secret – NOT!
- Journalist's Resource: Religious Exemptions and Required Vaccines; Examining the Research
- Adrienne G. Cannon Writes: Those Lonely Days
- Biden-Harris Administration Marks Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act and Announces Resources to Support Individuals with Long COVID, Increased Access to Democracy for Voters with Disabilities
- The Scout Report: Seacoast Science Center, British Science Week, World War II Alaska, American Hiking Society's Hiking 101 Portal, Portland Women's History Trail
- GAO: Transportation Safety: DOT Has Taken Steps to Verify and Publicize Drug and Alcohol Testing Data But Should Do More