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What Happens When Police License Plate Readers Make Mistakes? (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
The Verge reports that San Francisco Bay Area police "pulled over a California privacy advocate and held him at gunpoint after a database error caused a license plate reader to flag a car as stolen, a lawsuit alleges." Brian Hofer, the chairman of Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission, was handcuffed and surrounded by multiple police cars, and says a police deputy injured his brother by throwing him to the ground. They were finally released -- 40 minutes later. But ironically, Hofer has been a staunch critic of license plate readers, "which he points out have led to wrongful detentions, invasions of privacy and potentially costly lawsuits." (California bus driver Denise Green was detained at gunpoint when her own car was incorrectly identified as stolen -- leading to a lawsuit which she eventually settled for nearly $500,000.) And at least one thief simply swapped license plates with an innocent driver.
The executive director of Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, a state government program, acknowledged that the accuracy rate of the license plate readers is about 90 percent, yet "added that in some cases, the technology has actually exonerated people, or given potential suspects alibis. But there is no way for the public to know just how effective the license plate reader technology is in capturing criminals" -- apparently because police departments aren't capturing that data. Only one of the region's police departments, in Piedmont, California, reported its "efficacy metrics" to the agency -- with 7,500 "hits" which over 11 months led to 28 arrests (and the recovery of 39 cars) after reading 21.3 million license plates. The license plate readers cost $20,000 per patrol car.
In Hofer's case, he was driving a rental car which had previously been reported as stolen but then later recovered -- though for some reason the police or rental car agency failed to update their database. But he criticizes the fact that "somebody could pull a gun on your because of an alert that a computer system gave them."
"They're just pulling guns and going cowboy on us," Hofer says. "It's a pretty terrifying position to be in....
"This is happening more frequently than it should be. They're not ensuring the accuracy of their data and people's lives are literally at risk."
The executive director of Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, a state government program, acknowledged that the accuracy rate of the license plate readers is about 90 percent, yet "added that in some cases, the technology has actually exonerated people, or given potential suspects alibis. But there is no way for the public to know just how effective the license plate reader technology is in capturing criminals" -- apparently because police departments aren't capturing that data. Only one of the region's police departments, in Piedmont, California, reported its "efficacy metrics" to the agency -- with 7,500 "hits" which over 11 months led to 28 arrests (and the recovery of 39 cars) after reading 21.3 million license plates. The license plate readers cost $20,000 per patrol car.
In Hofer's case, he was driving a rental car which had previously been reported as stolen but then later recovered -- though for some reason the police or rental car agency failed to update their database. But he criticizes the fact that "somebody could pull a gun on your because of an alert that a computer system gave them."
"They're just pulling guns and going cowboy on us," Hofer says. "It's a pretty terrifying position to be in....
"This is happening more frequently than it should be. They're not ensuring the accuracy of their data and people's lives are literally at risk."
But ironically, Hofer has been a staunch critic of license plate readers
That's just wisdom, bearing itself out. Irony would be previous support/praise of plate readers on his part.
You can argue about the plate technology, but the obvious big issue here is that the police help unarmed suspects at gunpoint. We have a severe police hiring, training, and discipline problem.
Derp, because people who steal cars or such crimes are often armed and it's called a "felony stop" for that reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjplXJJfUs
This is pretty much exactly the OPPOSITE of ironic.
He was already a critic of these devices - and now he has been provided with additional supporting evidence as to why they are bad.
It would’ve been ironic (in the colloquial sense) had he previously been a gung-ho supporter of police’s use of license plate scanners.
#DeleteChrome
In the USA, with more guns than people, of course people will often be armed. It's their right and everything.
No, law enforcement thinks it's at war with the population it says it's there to protect and serve. You can see that in many things, and this is one of them.
Anyhow, "90% accuracy" is both not enough information and really quite damningly low given that most by far plate readings ought to end up negative. Do the math. My conclusion is that those things aren't there for their stated purpose, but to have an easy excuse to play cop once more.
Because statistically speaking, he's perfectly safe. In 2014, the fatality rate for officers was .01%, or 11.1 per 100,000, and around half of those were a result of non-violent incident (accidents, both auto and being struck, illness, etc.) That then puts their murder rate at close to 5.5 per 100,000, even better odds. The reality is that policing CAN be dangerous, but it's not likely to be. Few officers will ever fire their weapon during an incident over the entire course of their careers. Should they be cautious? Certainly. Should open with escalation? Certainly not, at least not without clear cause.
Did you pause to think that maybe the reason the safety numbers are better than your list of the worst, is because the police follow safety practices which include taking no chances when approaching a stolen vehicle? That is exactly what they are trained to do.
Lets keep cop jobs as safe as possible, even if that means they talk mean to you once in a while, or put cuffs on you while they resolve the situation. And unless you are monumentally stupid, be respectful and do exactly as they say. I've been cuffed before. I got over it.
As it turns out, cops are people. Like all other people, most are good, some are awesome, and some are assholes.