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Louisiana Governor Vetoes License Plate Reader Bill, Citing Privacy Concerns
An anonymous reader writes: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has vetoed a plan to acquire license plate reading cameras in the state. Law enforcement agencies nationwide use such cameras to scan cars and compare them to a "hot list" of stolen or wanted vehicles. That data is kept for weeks, or even years In some cases. Jindal wrote in a signing statement: "Senate Bill No. 250 would authorize the use of automatic license plate reader camera surveillance programs in various parishes throughout the state. The personal information captured by these cameras, which includes a person’s vehicle location, would be retained in a central database and accessible to not only participating law enforcement agencies but other specified private entities for a period of time regardless of whether or not the system detects that a person is in violation of vehicle insurance requirements. Camera programs such as these that make private information readily available beyond the scope of law enforcement, pose a fundamental risk to personal privacy and create large pools of information belonging to law abiding citizens that unfortunately can be extremely vulnerable to theft or misuse. For these reasons, I have vetoed Senate Bill No. 250 and hereby return it to the Senate."
ANPR (Automatic Numberplate Readers) cameras are already in use practically everywhere, this is just a litmus test as to whether anyone claiming a Constitutional violation might have a case. Asked then answered.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
...when an IP address does not?
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
The skeptic in me says he vetoed it as political cover, expecting his veto to be overruled. The article says that the bill "overwhelmingly" passed both Louisiana chambers. This way he can say "I stood up for privacy and against big government" knowing that his veto wasn't going to stop it.
Would he have vetoed it if it barely passed?
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
This could be just pandering to the libertarian Right of the Republican Party towards a bid for its presidential nomination. Or he could really believe in citizen privacy rights. Who knows.
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
Surely they can't be needing to track that many plates? Why not push a whitelist to all the cameras so that they only send data on matches instead of sending all data for all plates found.
... Inside the mind of Europeans must be truly deafening. "I have a right to privacy!" But, sure, the government should know what I'm doing all the time cuz, ya know, socialism.
I see much more potential for evil. Be nice if they had a 0 day retention policy, then it could be used to find stolen cars. But it's a very small step from scanning a plate, checking it against a database, then discarding the into; , to retaining the data for however long The Powers That Be want it. I flat out do not trust the government anymore, I don't want them tracking everyone's cars 24/7.
Forgive me for being dense. But you are in a public area with a publicly mandated identifier on your publicly registered vehicle. HOW can you have any expectation of privacy? I could understand them banning a car driving around reading the number plates of cars on driveways or other private property but if you a driving on the road I don't understand.
From what I gather as well it is not the recording of the information so much as the method that has been cited as the issue. So if they were to have someone sitting on the road writing your number plate down as your drove by that would be ok but an automated camera is not?
Subject says it all. Don't track me. If my car is every stolen again, please do me a favor and don't bring it back!
A license plate points to the registered owner of the vehicle in the same way an IP address points to the registered owner of the internet service.
A license plate is issued to a car by the government; an IP address is issued to a modem/router by the service provider.
A license plate does not tell you who is driving the car; an IP address does not tell you who is using the connection.
That is why an IP address was ruled not to point to a person.
That is why a license plate would likely also be ruled not to point to a person.
I really don't give a damn if the gov knows I was driving down 4th avenue at 3:45PM. Seriously.
This governor is an idiot for thinking "privacy concerns" even apply here. Just the simple fact that you leave the house expose you to hundred if not thousand of cameras that capture your face, on a daily basis. A license plate should be the least of your concern.
Now we've tickled the American's funny bone. They consent to have their rectum examined by google, but when EU wants to stop google they get all pissed off. However, when a government they elected and can unelect every 4 years tries to save some money by using an efficient way of collecting fines, not biometric face scans, but letters and numbers printed in large font for, ehm, vehicle identification, they get all into freedom mode... :)
(And yes, traffic fines in US are just a thinly veiled attempt at taxation, but if you vote republicans that can't raise taxes normally, you still need to bring this money in somehow, that is why I don't really object to paying them and you shouldn't either...)
You aren't from around here, are you?
It's bad for the same reason that police access to library records is bad: it's too easy to turn innocent actions into apparent evildoing. The library example is easier to demonstrate:
Let's suppose you're an avid reader who likes mysteries, and in a year you've read 100 such books. One day you find yourself in court, and the prosecutor says to you: "Haven't you, in the last year, read 100 books detailing how an innocent person was murdered?"
Don't think something like this couldn't happen to you. There are very few actions that a sufficiently nasty government couldn't use to railroad you; making their job easier is a bad idea.
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It is immediately suborned by police to verify if you have your car registered correctly or other 'money making' acts.
I was quite surprised to be pulled over by a cop a few years ago and told that my registration was expired. Especially surprising because my car had it's proper stickers and I'd just finished registering it a few weeks prior.
But apparently the local county DMV records that the city PD was using were out of date, so he thought I was using illegal stickers or some crap. So to say that they only use these licence plate readers for catching 'stolen cars' is pretty much a bald faced lie.
They'll use it every which way they can and "catch" all the criminals, damn their privacy.
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
If you don't want license plates to be read, don't put them on cars in the first place.
Its romantic to think that we can, therefore we should monitor and track everything "Just in case." The "Just In Case" clause is one of the central starting points of over-reach.
Many say "Its in a public place, how do you expect privacy". Well, this is why I expect a certain degree of privacy. Sure we can take video in 360 degrees of entire areas, or just pull all traffic data. Sure I may have traveled past that area, but until technology came along, the moment passed and all was done. Now people are using this to falsely argue these are the same things. Being there once and having it then on record for life, or even extending that moment "just 30 more days" are not the same thing. Sure it is public, but I also expect that we are smart enough to not put ourselves on a path to our lives being controlled any more than they already are by robots.
I'm far from convinced these things do anyone any real good, and just because we can, and don't leave your house if you don't expect a little privacy, isn't a good enough reason for me to see us push for surveillance. If those are the simple enough reasons to push forward, then its time to put balloons in the skies over every city, especially the "rough parts."
I suppose on the other side, why enter the debate, just partner with a company and buy their records.
IMHO, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, who gives a shit. Some moments are meant to be lost to time.
The car is displayed on a public road in full view of the world. What the heck definition of privacy includes existence of a situation or object in full view in a public place? Anything that can be viewed in public is not private. We are really over the edge stupid about some common beliefs.
The creationist biologist actually did something good?
Many European cities that impose traffic flow restrictions (London, Rome, Florence, ...) use automatic license plate readers to scan the plates of every vehicle entering the restricted zone, compare them against the database of plates legally allowed to drive in the city and automatically fine the owner if they aren't.
London certainly retains those records and I'm sure the other European cities do also. Their justification is that the records retention is needed to defend claims of unjust tickets.
Looks like the contractors did a good job greasing the palms of pigs and state congress but forgot to give the governor his share. That's what happens when you cheap out, lobbyists.
He is a Republican, so the theme on Slashdot is that he is a bad guy who did it for some sneaky dishonest reason. What this argument ignores is all the supposedly better politicians who did not do what he did.
Jindal is an actual Conservative Republican with a long track record of opposing big government and its intrusion into the privacy of individuals. This makes him very different from the phony conservatives (like Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Peter King, etc) who campaign as conservatives but then turn on their base and do the bidding of the Chamber of Cronies. The phonies are the ones pushing hard for the TAA and TPA garbage in congress right now, supporting the NSA snooping on everybody and so forth; the phonies are the ones who backed the Wall St bailouts and the car company bailouts and who align with Obama on all of these things. They are a major part of the reason the TEA Party exists.
He was concerned that the private prison population would drop because of the increased access to location information when attempting to railroad people at trial to keep the prisons full.