Automatic License Plate Readers: ‘Invasion of Privacy’ or ‘For our protection’?

The recent addition of License Plate Scanners to Law Enforcement cars in roughly 38 States is raising concern amongst residents. 

In San Diego, Calif, the cameras have been in use for four months and the Sheriff’s Department Spokeswoman, Jan Caldwell, confirms that the cameras have helped recover a “stolen car within the first ten minutes” of deployment.

But groups like the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa (ACLU) argue that the cameras “represent a potential threat to the privacy of Innocent (people)”.

 

In California, there are distinct laws regarding invasion of privacy—

1. If a person “knowingly enters onto a land of another person without permission.”
2. And If they “attempts to capture, in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person, any type of visual image, sound recording,  or other physical impression” of person

The scanners are meant to help law enforcement fight crime and terrorism, but in a report from 

Bloomberg Businessweek,

“ACLU says, their biggest concern is figuring out ‘how long the location and movements of people are being kept on file’ after the pictures are taken by cameras mounted on police cars.In a question posted on Facebook that asked if “License plate scanners should be used to curb crime or if they are an invasion of privacy”,  Manuel Vasquez of San Fernando, Calif. answered, “Invasion of Privacy”.

Thus far in Los Angeles County, according to a the July 2012 report in the Police Chief Magazine, there are only “12 cars fully installed with the systems, 8 in the Compton area and 4 in the La Habra Heights area.”