-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The new toy is Automatic License Plate Reader/Recognition (ALPR), and a cool toy it is. It basically reads every license plate its cameras see and compares that data to a list. That list might contain the license plates of stolen vehicles, the license plates of drivers with suspended licenses or no insurance, and “Amber Alerts.” This all happens automatically, in real-time.
The systems also stores the date and time of every license plate and the corresponding GPS coordinates, even for law-abiding citizens. Therein lies the potential for abuse.
Federal grants for ALPRs, given to cities and towns, come with the stipulation that all data must be submitted to the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), a massive government database in hills of West Virginia. It won’t be long before the federal and state governments will require all license plates be ALPR-compliant, that is, easy for ALPRs to read.
As explained by the LAPD Chief of Detectives, the “real value” of the ALPR “comes from the long-term investigative uses of being able to track vehicles—where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing.”
ALPR does the same thing as a police officer does, it reads the plate, it compares the plate to a list, and it remembers what it sees and where it sees it. The courts have held that police officers can run license plates at their discretion without violating the Fourth Amendment.
In the case of United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Charles N. Matthews, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that a “license plate was in plain view on the outside of the car” and hence, is “subject to seizure” because there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.
In the case of United States of America, Plaintiff v. Curtis Ellison, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held:
Thus, so long as the officer had a right to be in a position to observe the defendant’s license plate, any such observation and corresponding use of the information on the plate does not violate the Fourth Amendment.
The Supreme Court denied the writ of certiorari in the case of Curtis Ellison, Petitioner v. United States.
H/T: Kade Crockford, ACLU, Boston Herald.
Blouise:
You wrote:
“One wonders why they are so desperate to keep track of us.”
Money–always follow the money. These people earn a living by enslaving us and are not about to give up on it when new technology makes it more lucrative. Theses are not virtuous public “servants” interested in safety. They are greedy dirt-bag fascists only interested in their paychecks and anything that maintains it regardless of whether or not is more immoral or criminal than anything they are monitoring us for.
WrldVoyagr,
And who is keeping an eye on the governmental agencies to make sure that they are not storing the information illegally?
Trying link one more time:
http://www.enotes.com/major-acts-congress/privacy-act
Jude:
To your point.
I don’t know author of article,but I don’t want to be a part of misinformation.
Major Acts Of Congress
eNotes Home > Law and Politics > Major Acts of Congress > Privacy Act of 1974
MAJOR ACTS OF CONGRESSRESOURCESABOUThttp://www.enotes.com/major-acts-congress/privacy-act
As mentioned above my concern isn’t the cop on patrol, it’s them putting up readers every other intersection on major roads. It wouldn’t be hard to have a pretty good record of where you are. Or at least where your car is.
(It’s worth noting that your cell phone also blabs your position every 10 minutes or so.)
As for reading license plates from space – hardly. Among other problems there’s a theoretical limitation on the resolution of a telescope given the distance and size of the mirror – a mirror able to read a fraction of an inch is too large to launch. (It may be possible to get beyond this using non-classical optics but I wouldn’t count on it.) There’s atmospheric distortion. There’s low contrast on the holograms – it might help if you’re illuminating the license plate but not if you’re passively reading it.
The spy novels with satellites reading the newspaper in the Commisar’s hands might be good yarns but it’s far beyond possibility.
BTW the other thing to remember is the sheer volume of data. Commercial images are limited to 1/2 meter resolution (or a bit over 18 inches) and many, many gigabytes of data. To read a drivers license in optimal conditions you’ll need a resolution of, oh, 1 inch. This means you have 18^2 or over 300 times more data. That takes a lot more disk space, a lot more processing power, etc. This is worth it for high-value targets but survellience of traffic in American cities? Not so much.
In Europe with much stricter EU Privacy Guidelines, these device have also come under fire. Currently, they can only check for stolen vehicles and such, but all “innocent” license plates must be immediately deleted, no storage (and therefore tracking) is allowed.
Good article Nal! I guess I will have to start winking at the sky when I get out of bed and say hi to Uncle Sam! Scary stuff and easily abused.
““Theoretically this can happen again, depending on the whims of the computer,’’ said his lawyer, William Spallina.
What utter B.S. Computers do not get “whims.” They are based on the principle, “garbage in, garbage out.” And this is complete rubbish.
I parked my car in 1996. Have not looked back.
Thank you Elaine….
AY,
I don’t know what the status of the suit is.
Elaine,
What is the status of that suit…It is pretty hard to sue and win cases like these..not to say it can’t be done…This is one of those Rights/Privileges….things….vs an Administrative Error vs National Security…I imagine the suit if filed in the State court would be removed (moved) to the US District Court as they have a stake in the matter….
as they track me they r tracked,,,,,,no pun intended!
Nal,
Here’s a story from Massachusetts that you may find interesting:
Caught in a dragnet
A fraud prevention system erroneously revoked his license, and now he’s suing for his hardship
Boston Globe, 7/17/2011
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/07/17/man_sues_registry_after_license_mistakenly_revoked/
Excerpt:
John H. Gass hadn’t had a traffic ticket in years, so the Natick resident was surprised this spring when he received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him to cease driving because his license had been revoked.
“I was shocked,’’ Gass said in a recent interview. “As far as I was concerned, I had done nothing wrong.’’
After frantic calls and a hearing with Registry officials, Gass learned the problem: An antiterrorism computerized facial recognition system that scans a database of millions of state driver’s license images had picked his as a possible fraud.
It turned out Gass was flagged because he looks like another driver, not because his image was being used to create a fake identity. His driving privileges were returned but, he alleges in a lawsuit, only after 10 days of bureaucratic wrangling to prove he is who he says he is.
And apparently, he has company. Last year, the facial recognition system picked out more than 1,000 cases that resulted in State Police investigations, officials say. And some of those people are guilty of nothing more than looking like someone else. Not all go through the long process that Gass says he endured, but each must visit the Registry with proof of their identity.
“We send out 1,500 suspension letters every day,’’ said Registrar Rachel Kaprielian, who says the system has been a powerful weapon to fight identity fraud since it was installed in 2006 but that it is not without problems. “There are mistakes that can be made.’’
Neither the Registry nor State Police keep tabs on the number of people wrongly tagged by the system. But Gass estimates in his lawsuit that hundreds might have received revocation notices in error since the system was installed.
“Theoretically this can happen again, depending on the whims of the computer,’’ said his lawyer, William Spallina.
Massachusetts began using the software after receiving a $1.5 million grant from the US Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents that states issue.
At least 34 states are using such systems. They help authorities verify a person’s claimed identity and track down people who have multiple licenses under different aliases, such as underage people wanting to buy alcohol, people with previous license suspensions, and people with criminal records trying to evade the law. Lisa Cradit, a spokeswoman for L-1 Identity Solutions, the largest developer of the software, said it can reduce fraud by 80 percent.
The system looks at each driver’s license photograph stored in the state’s computers, mapping thousands of facial data points and generating algorithms that compare the images to others in the mathematical database, said State Police spokesman David Procopio. The software then displays licenses with similar-looking photographs – those with two or more images that have a high score for being the same person. Registry analysts review the licenses and check biographical information, criminal records, and drivers’ histories, in part to rule out cases with legitimate explanations, such as drivers who are identical twins.
“No reasonable expectation of privacy” is the Supreme Court’s theme song. One wonders why they are so desperate to keep track of us.
One of the things I do not like about the Automatic License Plate Reader/Recognition (ALPR) is they can record a plate 4 lanes over in heavy traffic….with the aid of Satellites, I think is an invasion of privacy….Although this has been upheld on a case by case basis because the system employed read the plate and the officer got a notification that the plate was invalid, insurance was expired or maybe some amber alert, because the occupant had no expectation of privacy as the plate was on the outside of the vehicle……… ….I am sure LE will not acknowledge that they have this capability….
If you will look at the center of your plate..you have a holograph….it is circular and is it from top to bottom in circles….your license plate number…This is so satellites can ascertain a vehicles location….Don’t worry….they have many other ways to track you….this is just one of many…
Uhm, eniobob, there is one blaringly incorrect thing about that article. 25 years ago, Gerald Ford apparently signed a bill… As President?
enionbob,
They all ready do it here…Thank you Gov Bush….which expanded it to the national level…We should all free so free…
Another player also:
New privacy guidelines would give FBI leeway to abuse privacy
Published: Sunday, July 24, 2011, 9:03 AM
http://blog.nj.com/njv_frank_askin/2011/07/new_privacy_guidelines_would_g.html
Nal:
Had a former New York Transportation commisioner on the other night addressing this very subject,but he was saying that the readers on the highways were for tracking traffic speeds etc.These readers are not in police cars,they are the nondescrpit poles you pass each and every day.
He wants to use this technology to put tolls on East River bridges where there are none and according to him they use to have tolls on them.
He said the readers would eliminate the need for toll collectors and the state would send you your toll fare in the mail.I guess it would be like a traffic ticket,but it would be a toll.
And when they plant the chip under your skin don’t complain, if you haven’t anything to hide why should you worry?