Technology originally proposed to help police officers find missing children and criminals is now being used in poor and minority neighborhoods to help with repossession of cars and collection of fines associated with outstanding warrants.
Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR) have become common and are used by law enforcement and private companies. The cameras, which are mounted on police cars and on fixed objects like toll booths and light poles, can record thousands of license plates a minute. The license plate numbers, along with identifying information like time and location, are recorded and uploaded into a giant database.
Police departments that subscribe to the service can then cross-reference thousands of license plates against their own database of citizens with outstanding warrants.
Private debt collection agencies have gotten in on the action. Executives from ALPR company, Vigilant Solutions, estimates that one in four repossession companies uses an ALPR. Given the high cost of the system, between $20,000 and $30,000, and the bounty associated with each vehicle with an owner in arrears, some repo companies target low-income neighborhoods to set up their cameras.
There are few laws governing how the information is collected and shared, and for how long the data is kept, something that alarms privacy advocates and civil liberty advocates.
The ACLU calls for legislation surrounding the use of the technology and the following principles:
- License plate readers may be used by law enforcement agencies only
- The government must not store data about innocent people
- People should be able to find out if plate data of vehicles is registered to them
- Law enforcement agencies should not share license plate reader data
- Any entity that uses license plate readers should be required to report it
The concerns about the use of this sophisticated technology go beyond debt collection. It’s also been used as part of questionable surveillance of mosques. As the technology spreads, people will have to demand greater oversight.
Featured image from GraphicStock
