License Plate Scanner ban falls to pressure from lobbyists
What is being described as a victory for law enforcement lobbyists and private industry, the California bill restricting high-tech license-plate scanners appears to be dead.
State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, proposed the bill [PDF] in March after California Watch reported that a private company had stockpiled more than a half-billion records on drivers from the license-plate readers.
The Bay Citizen reported the details, stating The scanner is affixed to the outside of patrol cars and captures the geographic location of motorists along with the date and time, regardless of whether the individual is a wanted criminal, a fact that alarms privacy groups.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised by the lack of sensitivity to privacy concerns on the part of public entities, including law enforcement,” Simitian said. “This is not uncommon in my experience. I think for many of these organizations … they see privacy as a fairly abstract right.”
Simitian says that SB 1330 would help balance privacy protections afforded California residents in the state’s constitution with the cutting-edge tools that law enforcement agencies have requested to improve public safety.
The bill would add Section 2413.5 to the state’s Vehicle Code. It reads in part:
(2) [A state or local law enforcement agency that uses license plate recognitiontechnology] shall not sell LPR data for any purpose and it shall not make the data available to an agency or person that is not a law enforcement agency or an individual who is not a law enforcement officer. The data may be used by a law enforcement agency only for purposes of locating vehicles or persons when either are reasonably suspected of being involved in the commission of a public offense.
Furthermore, the proposed law would apply to individual persons who seek to obtain or distribute LPR data through venues such as the National Vehicle Location Service – a database run by Vigilant Video, a private, Livermore-based company.
From Vigilant Video:
| License Plate Recognition (LPR) is the one of the fastest growing technolgies in both the private and public safety security markets. Simply stated, LPR has three components: |
| 1) Capturing a vehicle license plate using a specialized video camera
2) Creating data records and logging the capture attributes 3) Generating alert notifications as ‘target vehicles’ are identified (Sounding the Alarm) |
 |
| Vigilant Video has evolved these three concepts with the aim of offering you new ways to serve and protect. Our enterprise class solutions remain unparalelled. |
|
| The LPR capture – With more than 5,000,000 captured US based moving license plates in our video library, our software has yielded capture ratios exceeding 96% in all regions. |
|
| LPR Data Records – The Vigilant Video solution automatically tracks Who, Where & When for all vehicular activity with advanced network capabilities to distribute data as necessary. |
|
| Sounding the Alarm – Vigilant Video has placed its mark as the world’s leader at delivering Target Alerts “Anywhere Any Time” with its Target Alert Service – an advanced delivery device that ensures you stay informed. |
|
Vigilant Video screen capture
