License-plate scanning and GPS tracking raising privacy worries
Posted by: admin in surveillance, tags: Big BrotherSource: azcentral.com
U.S. plate readers were introduced as an auto-theft deterrent, but investigators talk about using the cameras to create a virtual Arizona crime map, widening the scope beyond stolen vehicles.By logging the daily location of thousands of registered automobiles, investigators may be able to narrow down the locations of people they are looking for.
The automated technology, for instance, gives officers the ability to check the license plate of each vehicle parked outside a known drug house or note what cars were parked outside a bank before and after a heist.
In October, Callister stopped a motorist on I-10 near Casa Grande for driving too close to another vehicle. The stop led to the discovery of $175,000 in cash and raised suspicions of money laundering.
To search for the man’s possible criminal associates, detectives could easily check the list of license plates on vehicles that passed before and after the man’s vehicle.
Plate-readers might be a boon for investigators, but agencies such as DPS already have grappled with the possibility of public resistance from those who fear the technology threatens the civil rights of law-abiding citizens. Of the thousands of license plates scanned each day, only a small fraction of the vehicles are tied to some possible criminal activity.
DPS, working with statewide task forces, could emerge as the central agency to store the data from the scans - but the agency has yet to establish guidelines on how to use the data and how long that information would be saved.
“That’s where some people might consider it an invasion of privacy,” Callister said, but he downplayed the idea, saying the plates are public information seen on public streets.
“This database is just a big pile of plates and GPS locations,” he said, adding that the potential to solve crimes outweighs privacy concerns. “If somebody is involved in a bank robbery, or kidnaps a kid, and they do have a plate, they can go back to see the vehicle was at a (specific) location.”
Cmdr. Larry Scarber, who oversees the DPS plate-reader program, said information from the cameras is used strictly to prevent crime.
“We have to be very cautious,” Scarber said of the records of vehicle locations. “Right now, we haven’t gotten rid of anything.”
Police leaders met recently with Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard to discuss how to manage the vast amount of data without treading on motorists’ civil liberties or limiting the technology’s crime-fighting potential.
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