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Judge Orders Fairfax Police To Stop Collecting Data From License Plate Readers (washingtonpost.com)
A Fairfax County judge on Monday ordered the Fairfax County police to stop maintaining a database of photos of vehicle license plates, with the time and location where they were snapped, ruling that "passive use" of data from automated license plate readers on the back of patrol cars violates Virginia privacy law. From a report: The ruling followed a related finding by the Virginia Supreme Court last year, meaning the case could affect how long -- if at all -- Virginia police can keep license plate data. The ruling by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Smith is a victory for privacy rights advocates who argued that the police could track a person's movements by compiling the times and exact locations of a car anytime its plate was captured by a license plate reader. Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. said Monday night that he would ask the county attorney to appeal the ruling.
The issue represents another front in the ongoing conflict over the use of emerging technologies by law enforcement. Police say they can, and have, used license plate location data to find dangerous criminals and missing persons. Privacy advocates don't oppose the use of the technology during an active investigation, but they say that maintaining a database of license plate locations for months or years provides too much opportunity for abuse by the police. Last month, the ACLU disclosed that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was tapping into a vast, national database of police and private license plate readers. Such private databases remain unregulated.
The issue represents another front in the ongoing conflict over the use of emerging technologies by law enforcement. Police say they can, and have, used license plate location data to find dangerous criminals and missing persons. Privacy advocates don't oppose the use of the technology during an active investigation, but they say that maintaining a database of license plate locations for months or years provides too much opportunity for abuse by the police. Last month, the ACLU disclosed that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was tapping into a vast, national database of police and private license plate readers. Such private databases remain unregulated.
For people that live in Fairfax county.
Not so good for the people who don't even know where Faifax county is
Theres probably quite a few of them.
But the general trend is against privacy. Police assume everyone is a criminal who has just not been caught yet. The presumption of innocence is dead.
E Proelio Veritas.
They place Emissions testers randomly in corners of highways.
https://www.rapidpassvirginia.com/VaPublic/Home/FAQ
"RAPIDPASS systems are exhaust emissions analyzers similar to those used in traditional emissions inspection stations, but adapted for drive-through testing. Two green boxes placed across a lane of traffic measure a vehicle's speed and acceleration and associated exhaust emissions in order to determine its compliance with emissions standards. A camera captures an image of the vehicle's license plate so owners can be notified their vehicle has qualified for the convenience and time savings of the RAPIDPASS program."
I have a feeling that if someone started tracking the whereabouts of the police chief and keeping that data stored for years, they may get the hint... or make up some BS reason to arrest you.
They're still collecting data, the judge said they can't store it indefinitely without a good reason.
Use SFTP instead.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
IMHO:
License Plate Scanners are a vitally important/valuable tech, for law enforcement, to fight against crime, to protect & serve common good of general public!!!
& on the contrary to what self-appointed "Privacy Advocates" (like ACLU & EFF etc) always try to claim/portray, general public is NOT obsessed w/ privacy (ask FaceBook!!!) & actually quite willing to help law enforcement!!!
FTP
Heh. Wait until you have to call 911.
You'll be singing a different tune then.
If you survive.
All this "Fuck the police" SJW BULLSHIT would end real fast if the police in places like Baltimore or Chicago just walked off the job for a month the next time SJW politicians charged them with murder when someone broke their own damn neck in the back of a police van or skated after faking a hate crime.
You probably don't know that one of the bits of evidence used by the Baltimore SJW prosecutor in the Freddie Gray trials was that the driver went around turns TOO SLOW in order to make the ride WORSE. Seriously - that's how deranged the Freddie Gray prosecutions were.
Then the voters stuck in those cities would stop voting for the SJW moron politicians.
I wouldn't mind them using the tech to deal with tickets, fines, warrants, etc. As long as they didn't keep the license plate time-location data beyond that point. In this case the tech would merely assist in police work.
Some might argue that having a database of where every car has ever been in the past could also make police work easier. But in that case we are building the apparatus of a police state. Police work is always easy in a police state. They record all your calls, contacts, movements and associations.
Using automation to identify a car with unpaid fines is merely providing assistance. Keeping a record of all other license plates read during the process is what crosses the line. Only keep a record of THIS car, at THIS location at THIS time, which is wanted for X.
The problem with keeping a database of all "innocent" car time-locations is that we can not, and never will be able to trust the people who have this database. See all of human history. This is why it is a problem for the NSA to have similar databases of innocent people.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
The very question invites the police-state to establish a new database and require rental car companies to append records to it for all rentals.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
The problem arises if they keep car location data for cars that do not raise any emissions concerns.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Baltimore or Chicago seem like places where citizens must be as fearful of police as they are of criminals.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
But that would require patience.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
The only way I can see where this ubiquitous collection and storage isn't a problem is if every plate (or whatever) is logged and every citizen has equal access to the database. In a case like that we lose the illusion of anonymity and even the biggest urban center becomes essentially a small village where everyone can know almost everything about each other. People got along fine for a long time in social situations like that and while to our modern thinking it might seem odd, I don't see it as intrinsically unworkable. But that equality is unlikely to happen, and if it doesn't the power imbalance is a very bad thing.
Driving an invisible car is not an option, nor should it be. If we really had an inalienable right to do that, then every license plate would just read "Road Tax Paid."
But hacking computers, tapping phone lines, intercepting cell phone data, no knock SWAT raids (on the basis of a single phone call), and seizing cash, laptops, and cell phones, all without a court order? Those are the kind of things where we would be better off drawing the line should be drawn and defended. Don't talk about slippery slopes, either. If people can't ever compromise on anything, and everything is an absolute, we wouldn't need judges or legislators or any of that.
If you want to take it to the kind of extremes where recording a license plate number is illegal, you might just as well outlaw collection and storage of fingerprints and DNA. I think it's great if they can figure out that a certain vehicle has been nearby on every occasion that a serial killer has struck.
The LPR companies like this ruling. It means LEOs will come to them to gather and manage the data. But who can attest to the integrity of the data? And no warrants will be required to access the data.
I would add that FFC police are horrendous when it comes to transparency.
Wow..that's wild.
Where I live, they don't even do emissions testing on annual car inspections, and other states I've lived in, don't even do annual inspections.
Interesting the differences between states.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Many license plate databases are privately created and operated. Various law enforcement agencies subscribe to these databases rather than run their own. Fairfax can switch from their system to a commercial system.
Where does the data for these private systems come from? Auto repossessors, bail bondsmen, private investigators, etc. These folks have been known to constantly scan everywhere they go. Some even cruise mall, stadium, walmart parking lots to build up the database.
Basically private databases exist that may indicate places you likely visit or drive past. Law enforcement is only part of the problem.
There are enough laws in the U.S. and sufficiently many strict liability laws that the second point you make is quite likely to be true. You've probably broken several laws of which you were completely unaware just today. This is why I'm of the opinion that every law should have an expiration date. If it's a good law, it can be passed again without issue, but it allows for bad laws to fall off the books over time and doesn't require expensive or lengthy legal challenges.
Yes, we also have to do something about LPR companies, if that was your intention.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Emissions testing is important in dense population areas because air quality can get out of hand pretty fast. In rural or smaller urban areas, keeping old cars on the road longer is a net positive environmentally speaking.
Not only that, but in VA we have "personal property tax" on our vehicles. They use the book value of your vehicle to tax it every year. My 2012 is still getting hit for ~$600/year. This encourages people to keep old polluting vehicles much longer than they should. Thankfully, I'm leaving this idiocy in the near future.
Just another day in Paradise
Perception isn't reality.
No. I work in data and tracking the movement of criminals is vitally important to doing pattern analysis. Plus, you have no expectation of privacy in public so if you want to be private, lock your front door and have Amazon deliver your groceries.
Of criminals and illegal migrants?
The people who use fake and shared parts of an ID to drive?
That the "active investigations" all over the USA that needs tech like vehicle license plates to find.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You have no expectation of privacy in a police state. If you want no expectation of privacy, then you should move to a police state. BTW, police work is EASY in a police state! You can monitor everyone's movements, contacts, associations, past history. It sounds perfect for you!
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
On your other topic: tracking the movement of criminals. I have no problem with that. But only track the criminals, not everyone else.
I don't have a problem with you scanning for license plates of wanted cars. If you see one, then the system should alert and record the car, time and location. But all those non-criminal car license plates you scanned -- those should be discarded not recorded. No need for a massive police state database of where every car has ever been at any time.
The problem is this: you might trust the people with this database today. But what about tomorrow? What is some madman were in power a few years from now and had access to that data? Do Not build the apparatus of a police state. You don't know what hands it will fall into.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
If the LPR company is storing the data long-term, they should be shut down and their CEO convicted for stalking. Stalking is no more legal for a corporation than a private individual following you around and recording your every move.
While I agree that it's not good, this is the world we live in. Everything harvests and records information in public, as well as places of business. It will take data protection laws to change this, and even then, I doubt the wholesale collection of your shopping habits and location will be affected. We can expect this to continually reach deeper and deeper into our personal lives as long there is a few bucks to be made. It is our duty as private citizens to express displeasure, and work within our system to affect change every time we feel a line is crossed.
All that being said, it's important that we keep issues in focus, and only raise concerns regarding clear violations of our personal privacy. It takes more than simply following and recording a person in public to qualify as stalking. (AANAL)
Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family.
Like offering to sell your data to law enforcement. Sounds like a threat to me.
You don't know who is a criminal until after they committed a crime.