Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) aren’t just helping police investigate crimes anymore. They’re now being used to flag drivers for supposedly “suspicious” driving patterns.
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) aren’t just helping police investigate crimes anymore. They’re now being used to flag drivers for supposedly “suspicious” driving patterns.
This is exactly why law enforcement using a nationwide surveillance system constantly gathering evidence on everyone passing one of their cameras is a 4th amendment violation.
In a country that has been building its infrastructure around personal automobiles for decades, we cannot make that necessary function of daily life be an automatic consent to targeted analysis.
I get that cameras pointed at intersections and highways are here to stay. That means there will be records of what happens in public places that can be analyzed for a certain person’s movements once there’s a warrant.
That’s the whole fucking point of warrants and 4th amendment protections. Just because the technical ability exists to analyze somebody’s Personally Indentifiable Information doesn’t mean you just get to do it. Just like you don’t get to listen to any phone call you want, or plant bugs and trackers on everybody you are curious. (A group of three-letter agencies enters the chat, lol)
Bingo. Any reasonable judge would toss these cases for not having probable cause.
This also seems like easy legislation at the federal level. “Driving patterns gleaned from the use of an ALPR system does not, by itself, constitute probable cause.”