{"id":162578,"date":"2015-06-29T20:34:01","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T20:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=162578"},"modified":"2015-06-29T20:34:01","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T20:34:01","slug":"new-police-tech-cops-scanning-license-plates-trace-criminals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/new-police-tech-cops-scanning-license-plates-trace-criminals\/","title":{"rendered":"New police tech has cops scanning license plates “to trace criminals”"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RT<\/a>) –\u00a0A little-noticed surveillance technology equips police vehicles with infrared cameras that can record car license plate numbers then log the data for tracking outstanding warrants, suspended licenses and stolen vehicles.<\/p>\n

However, the latest crime-fighting tool comes with little-to-no
\nregulation for invasion of privacy.<\/p>\n

To give an idea of the power of the technology, called the Data
\nDriver Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTs), within the
\nspace of two months Denver police vacuumed up 835,000 license
\nplate images leading to 17,000 hits for warrants, stolen vehicles
\nand other things law enforcement searched for.<\/p>\n

The license plate readers are three high-resolution digital
\ncameras mounted on a police vehicle for all-round surveillance.
\nThe cameras capture license plate images, including information
\nsuch as date, time and location, and feed them to a laptop with
\nGPS within the vehicle. Using data that is updated every four
\nhours from federal, state and local databases, police can match
\nthe plate numbers for wanted vehicles, fugitive warrants,
\nsuspended or revoked drivers\u2019 license and stolen cars.<\/p>\n

In a typical use of the technology, a police car will cruise an
\narea of major gang activity or major crime night and day, and
\nrecord any and every vehicle within the proximity. Detective and
\nfield officers are also using the data to identify potential
\nwitnesses and suspects for later investigations. Police officials
\nsay they also use the data for predicting high traffic-areas that
\nmay need special attention and enforcement.<\/p>\n

The Denver Police Departmen has become a big advocate of DDACT,
\nwhich costs $11,000 for each vehicle,
\naccording<\/a> to Forbes. Under Police Commander Paul Pazen, more
\nthan 100 officers have been trained on how to the use the
\ntechnology. The DPD stores the information for 364 day before it
\nis permanently purged.<\/p>\n

Other cities like Los Angeles have used the license plate readers
\nfor several years, but police officials say adding in links to
\ncrime databases increases their effectiveness as drivers are
\nnotified when they or their car is wanted.<\/p>\n

Privacy advocates like<\/a> the American Civil liberties Union,
\nthough, have been concerned about license plate readers for over
\nthree years. In 2012, it sent public records act requests to
\nalmost 600 local and state police departments in 38 states and
\nWashington, DC, to find out how the agencies are using the
\nreaders.<\/p>\n

The group received 26,000 pages of documents in response and
\nrealized the readers have the potential to create permanent
\nrecords of virtually everywhere a person has driven. The ACLU
\nsaid that the use of this technology is an invasion of privacy as
\nit can reveal what friends, doctors, protests, political events
\nor churches a person might visit.<\/p>\n

Denver Police Commander Pazen
\ntold<\/a> Forbes that concerns about police targeting people is
\nunfounded, since the camera log is so random.<\/p>\n

Still, state lawmakers are starting to take action on the license
\nplate readers. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal vetoed legislation
\nthat would have permitted law enforcement to use the technology
\nto catch stolen vehicles and uninsured drivers.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jindal said his decision was due to concerns about the
\npublic\u2019s privacy, as such programs \u201ccreate large pools of
\ninformation belonging to law abiding citizens that unfortunately
\ncan be extremely vulnerable to theft or misuse<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other states are passing bills setting limits on how long the
\ndata can be retained. Arkansas sets theirs at 150 days, and
\nMinnesota just passed a law that allows law enforcement to hold
\nthe data for 60 days unless it is relevant to a crime, with
\nregular audits conducted at law enforcement agencies to ensure
\nthat the law is being enforced.
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RT) –\u00a0A little-noticed surveillance technology equips police vehicles with infrared cameras that can record car license plate numbers then log the data for tracking outstanding warrants, suspended licenses and stolen vehicles. However, the latest crime-fighting tool comes with little-to-no regulation for invasion of privacy. To give an idea of the power of the technology, called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,1616],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-162578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}