Officer Dennis Vafier, of the Alexandria Police Department, uses a laptop in his squad car to scan vehicle license plates during his patrols, Tuesday, July 16, 2013, in Alexandria, Va. Local police departments across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movements of vehicles with a license plate using automated scanners. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, dumping that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or even years. AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
WASHINGTON 鈥� Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study by a prominent civil rights organization.
A rapidly growing network of police cameras is capturing, storing and sharing data on license plates, making it possible to stitch together people鈥檚 movements whether they are stuck in a commute, making tracks to the beach or up to no good.
For the first time, the number of license tag captures has reached the millions, according to the study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union based on information from hundreds of law enforcement agencies. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely, saying they can be crucial in tracking suspicious cars, aiding drug busts, finding abducted children and more.
Attached to police cars, bridges or buildings 鈥� and sometimes merely as an app on a police officer鈥檚 smartphone 鈥� automated scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and pinpoint their locations, uploading that information into police databases.
Over time, it鈥檚 unlikely many vehicles in a covered area escape notice. And with some of the information going into regional databases encompassing multiple jurisdictions, it鈥檚 becoming easier to build a record of where someone has been and when, over a large area.
While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge鈥檚 approval is needed to use GPS to track a car, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver鈥檚 location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners are assembling a 鈥渟ingle, high-resolution image of our lives.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 just a fundamental question of whether we鈥檙e going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine,鈥� said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the organization. The group is proposing that police departments immediately delete any records of cars not linked to any crime.
Although less thorough than GPS tracking, plate readers can produce some of the same information, the group says, revealing whether someone is frequenting a bar, joining a protest, getting medical or mental help, being unfaithful to a spouse and much more.
In Minneapolis, for example, eight mobile and two fixed cameras captured data on 4.9 million license plates from January to August 2012, the Star Tribune reported. Among those whose movements were recorded: Mayor R.T. Rybak, whose city-owned cars were tracked at 41 locations in a year.
A Star Tribune reporter鈥檚 vehicle was tracked seven times in a year, placing him at a friend鈥檚 house three times late at night, other times going to and from work 鈥� forming a picture of the dates, times and coordinates of his daily routine. Until the city temporarily classified such data late last year, anyone could ask police for a list of when and where a car had been spotted.
As the technology becomes cheaper and more widespread, even small police agencies are able to deploy more sophisticated surveillance systems. The federal government has been a willing partner, offering grants to help equip departments, in part as a tool against terrorism.
Law enforcement officials say the scanners are strikingly efficient. The state of Maryland told the ACLU that troopers could 鈥渕aintain a normal patrol stance鈥� while capturing up to 7,000 license plate images in a single eight-hour shift.
鈥淎t a time of fiscal and budget constraints, we need better assistance for law enforcement,鈥� said Harvey Eisenberg, assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.
Law enforcement officials say the technology automates a practice that鈥檚 been around for years. The ACLU found that only five states have laws governing license plate readers. New Hampshire, for example, bans the technology except in narrow circumstances, while Maine and Arkansas limit how long plate information can be stored.
In Yonkers, just north of New York City鈥檚 Bronx, police said retaining the information indefinitely helps detectives solve future crimes. In a statement, the department said it uses license plate readers as a 鈥渞eactive investigative tool鈥� that is only accessed if detectives are looking for a particular vehicle in connection with a crime.
鈥淭hese plate readers are not intended nor used to follow the movements of members of the public,鈥� the department said.
Even so, the records add up quickly. In Jersey City, New Jersey, for example, the population is 250,000, but the city collected more than 2 million plate images in a year. Because the city keeps records for five years, the ACLU estimates that it has some 10 million on file, making it possible for police to plot the movements of most residents, depending upon the number and location of the scanners.
The ACLU study, based on 26,000 pages of responses from 293 police departments and state agencies across the country, found that license plate scanners produced a small fraction of 鈥渉its,鈥� or alerts to police that a suspicious vehicle had been found.