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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."
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.
Because when your car is stolen in the middle of the night and driven to a chop shop never to see the light of day again, and the theft isn't reported until the owner discovers the car missing the next morning, the police would like to have a clue if it was seen driving somewhere the previous night, and where. Or maybe a bank was robbed and by the time the plate is reported and entered a half hour later it is already ditched in a lot and not driving by any plate readers.
May not be the best answer for libertarians, but it is a reason a whitelist would fail for many legitimate cases.
The skeptic in me says he vetoed it as political cover, expecting his veto to be overruled.
Eh? A governor's veto has only been overruled twice in the history of the state. Where did you think the support is to overrule this one?
Besides, the politicians are "outraged" and busy trying to build support to overrule Jindal's Veto of HB 42, to give current state retirees an additional cost of living bonus. I doubt if Senate bill 250 is on their radar for an attempted veto override.
They will want to address the governor's privacy concerns.
Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to immigrants from India. He is an American.
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