Criminal or Not, Police License Plate Scanners are Gathering Your Information and Tracking You

Criminal or Not, Police License Plate Scanners are Gathering Your Information and Tracking You

By The Free Thought Project

image: [link to cdn.rt.com]
Reuters / Mike Blake

(RT) — A 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 the Data Driver Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTs), within the space of two months Denver police vacuumed up 835,000 license plate images leading to 17,000 hits for warrants, stolen vehicles and other things law enforcement searched for.

The license plate readers are three high-resolution digital cameras mounted on a police vehicle for all-around surveillance. The cameras capture license plate images, including information such as date, time and location, and feed them to a laptop with GPS within the vehicle. Using data that is updated every four hours from federal, state and local databases, police can match the plate numbers for wanted vehicles, fugitive warrants, suspended or revoked drivers’ license and stolen cars.

Read more at [link to thefreethoughtproject.com]