Are Police Cars Photographing You Daily?
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28 June 2013 by Mr. Naron
They are in California:
Quote
When the city of San Leandro, Calif., purchased a license-plate reader for its police department in 2008, computer security consultant Michael Katz-Lacabe asked the city for a record of every time the scanners had photographed his car.
The results shocked him.
The paperback-size device, installed on the outside of police cars, can log thousands of license plates in an eight-hour patrol shift. Katz-Lacabe said it had photographed his two cars on 112 occasions, including one image from 2009 that shows him and his daughters stepping out of his Toyota Prius in their driveway.
That photograph, Katz-Lacabe said, made him “frightened and concerned about the magnitude of police surveillance and data collection.” The single patrol car in San Leandro equipped with a plate reader had logged his car once a week on average, photographing his license plate and documenting the time and location.
If you are arrested for a crime, and any of the photographs collected by these patrol cars are used to convict you, then haven't the police violated the 4th Amendment? We're not talking about terrorism or national security, we're talking day to day law enforcement. I can't see how this information can be used legally unless I misunderstand the 4th Amendment, which is entirely likely. I know the eye cannot trespass, but don't the police have to get a warrant to follow you around? And doesn't that warrant have to be based on probable cause? If this information is used absent a warrant and absent probable cause, isn't it a violation of the 4th Amendment?
Now, even if it's legal, I can guarantee you it's going to be abused more than it'll be used for law enforcement. Elected officials are going to use these photos to go after people for political purposes and cops are going to use it to go after people for personal reasons. The only way to stop it is to build up a bureaucratic edifice around it that would make it much harder to use for law enforcement.
The bottom line for me is we need fewer laws to break not more ways to catch law breakers.
My Mind is Clean |
