ACLU seeks data on license plate readers

“It is critical for the public to know whether adequate safeguards are in place to limit the collection and storage of each individual’s license plate information,” MacLeod said.

The ACLU-NJ also sent records requests to Jersey City, Newark, Passaic, Paterson, Elizabeth, New Brunswick, Atlantic City and the New Jersey State Police, among others.

The ACLU-NJ sent a separate request to the N.J. Office of Homeland Security & Preparedness and to the Department of Law & Public Safety, regarding the availability of state and federal funding to obtain ALPR technology.

In addition, the national headquarters filed federal Freedom of Information Act requests with the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Transportation to learn how the federal government funds ALPR expansion nationwide and uses the technology itself.

The cameras, mounted on patrol cars or utility poles, bridges and other stationary objects, snap photos of every license plate that enters their fields of view.

Each is sent to a database that alerts officers to a hit (match).

“The ACLU supports the use of this technology if it is used for legitimate police investigations, such as identifying vehicles that are stolen, involved in a crime or associated with fugitives,” said Katie Wang, communications director for the ACLU of New Jersey. “Our concern is that these cameras can also infringe on the privacy of law-abiding citizens who might be going about their day-to-day activities — i.e., grocery shopping, visiting an aunt or friend, going to church, attending a political meeting — and having their movements tracked by these cameras.

“These cameras cast an awfully wide net and raises legitimate questions, such as what are police doing with information they’ve collected about people who are minding their own business who are not under investigation for anything.

“These cameras undermine the core principle in our society that government does not invade people’s privacy and collect information about citizens’ innocent activities just in case they do something wrong.”

“All the cameras do is read license plates as they drive past a patrol unit that has them,” Fort Lee Police Officer Patrick Kellett countered. “If it hits on a plate it alerts the officer — i.e., unregistered vehicle, stolen etc.

“The ALPR does not track movement,” the 22-year veteran added. “It does record in its database the time and location of the reading. It’s no different than if an officer runs a plate. The time obviously would be recorded through dispatch and the location recorded by the officer.

“This is a valuable tool for law enforcement that does not threaten privacy. The only people that should have an issue are the law breakers,” Kellett added. “The Supreme Court has already ruled there is no expectation of privacy when it comes to license plates, as they are out in the public’s eye, for the same reason a citizen can record a police officer on the street.”