Automatic License Plate Readers
The 桃子视频works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
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What's at Stake
A little-noticed surveillance technology designed to track the movements of every passing driver is fast proliferating on America鈥檚 streets. Automatic license plate readers鈥攎ounted on police cars or on objects like road signs and bridges鈥攗se small high-speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute.
The information captured by the readers鈥攊ncluding the license plate number and the date, time, and location of every scan鈥攊s being collected and sometimes pooled into regional sharing systems. As a result, enormous databases of innocent motorists鈥� location information are growing rapidly. This information is often retained for years, or even indefinitely, with few or no restrictions to protect privacy rights.
In July 2012, 桃子视频affiliates in 38 states and Washington, D.C., sent public records act requests to almost 600 local and state police departments, as well as other state and federal agencies, to obtain information on how these agencies use license plate readers. In response, we received thousands of pages of documents detailing the use of the technology around the country.聽
The documents paint a startling picture of a technology deployed with too few rules that is becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance.聽As the technology spreads, the 桃子视频calls for the adoption of legislation and law enforcement agency policies adhering to strict privacy principles to prevent the government from tracking our movements on a massive scale.聽
A little-noticed surveillance technology designed to track the movements of every passing driver is fast proliferating on America鈥檚 streets. Automatic license plate readers鈥攎ounted on police cars or on objects like road signs and bridges鈥攗se small high-speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute.
The information captured by the readers鈥攊ncluding the license plate number and the date, time, and location of every scan鈥攊s being collected and sometimes pooled into regional sharing systems. As a result, enormous databases of innocent motorists鈥� location information are growing rapidly. This information is often retained for years, or even indefinitely, with few or no restrictions to protect privacy rights.
In July 2012, 桃子视频affiliates in 38 states and Washington, D.C., sent public records act requests to almost 600 local and state police departments, as well as other state and federal agencies, to obtain information on how these agencies use license plate readers. In response, we received thousands of pages of documents detailing the use of the technology around the country.聽
The documents paint a startling picture of a technology deployed with too few rules that is becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance.聽As the technology spreads, the 桃子视频calls for the adoption of legislation and law enforcement agency policies adhering to strict privacy principles to prevent the government from tracking our movements on a massive scale.聽