Automatic License Plate Readers, Another Way We're Being Tracked

-- By NatashaDusaj - 29 Feb 2024

Introduction

Most Americans drive. The United States is home to over 250 million vehicles, each with a unique license plate. Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) track drivers--taking a picture of every car that passes and collecting data on the time and location of each scan [1]. This data can be used by police to track the movement of criminals [2]. Positioned on top of light poles, on top of police cars, and on traffic lights, ALPRs cross check, license plates against "hot lists" of plates that have been uploaded to the system and provide alerts to law enforcement when a match appears [3]. However, ALPRs do not just track and store the data of license plates that generate hits, they store the data of every vehicle that passes them. For every one million plates read in Maryland, only 0.2% resulted in a hit, and just 47 were potentially associated with serious crimes [4]. Databases of this information can be used to essentially create a record of the travel history of millions of drivers, regardless of their criminal history.

Regulations and Privacy Concerns

Law enforcement is not the only faction taking advantage of ALPRs, HOAs, apartment complexes, and other private companies retain the license plates and can even sell the information to police departments [5]. Legal policies fail to curb the collection and use of this data. As of 2022, only 16 states have legislation expressly addressing the use of ALPRs or the retention of data collected by ALPRs and these policies vary widely [6]. In New Hampshire, data must be deleted within three minutes, in Maine, 21 days, and in other states, there is no limit [7].

The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, but with modern technology, the scope of "searches" and "seizures" has expanded beyond physical definitions. Katz v. US held that the Fourth Amendment prohibited the government from intruding upon a person’s “reasonable expectation of privacy” (Katz). However, due to the “pervasive regulation of vehicles capable of traveling on the public highways,” there is no expectation of privacy in the content of license plates (New York v. Class). The question remains, at what point does the tracking of vehicles become unreasonable?

In US v. Jones the Supreme Court held that warrants were required to install a GPS tracking device on a car for extended surveillance. Police must also get warrants before obtaining location information based on mobile phones from cell phone providers because of “the depth, breadth, and comprehensive reach” of this data combined with “the inescapable and automatic nature of its collection” by simply carrying a cell phone (Carpenter v. US). The Supreme Court has not yet addressed whether police access to historical ALPR data requires a warrant.

Looking Forward

The use of ALPRs to monitor and track citizens must be regulated. Because private companies and well as the government have access to this information, the data collected has already become commodified. The databases created by these contain an unfathomable amount of information on our movement, and in the hands of private actors can lead to discrimination and manipulation. Data retention policies must be implemented on a nation-wide level, requiring deletion within days or weeks. Use of ALPRs should be strictly limited to law enforcement agencies operating with warrants to assist in ongoing criminal investigations. This data should not be permitted to be sold or monetized.

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