The man suspected of taking potshots at vehicles on Kansas City highways from March 18 to April 6 may now be in custody largely because digital cameras mounted atop police cruisers had randomly taken pictures of an Illinois license plate at least four times.
After a witness saw the driver of a green Dodge Neon behaving suspiciously and called the license plate in to police, detectives quickly searched Kansas City’s database of 11 million images collected from digital “automated license plate readers,” tracing the plate to various locations, an address and, eventually, Mohammed Pedro Whitaker. Without Illinois license plate G86-5203 — and the police department’s database — Whitaker might still be at large.
While Whitaker’s capture may have been the biggest law enforcement coup yet for the technology, it has not eased the concerns of civil libertarians who fear that the use of ALPR technology could present another step toward a “Big Brother”-type surveillance society if it is not used correctly.
“The implementation of automatic license plate readers poses serious privacy and other civil liberties threats,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a July 2013 report titled "You Are Being Tracked," warning that the technology could allow law enforcement agencies “to assemble the individual puzzle pieces of where we have been over time into a single, high-resolution image of our lives.”
Critics are also troubled by the use of ALPRs in the private sector — they have become a favored tool for car repo companies and banks in their efforts to track down those who default on auto loans.
“Quite simply, LPR saves lives and improves the safety of our [police] officers, families and communities while preserving personal privacy,” Vigilant Solutions, a leading data company, said in a statement. Most of Vigilant’s data comes from a subsidiary, Digital Recognition Network. According to the company, the subsidiary has increased its plate scans tenfold since September 2010, and adds 70 million scans a month. Its clients include financial industry heavy-hitters such as Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holdings and Citibank.
After a witness saw the driver of a green Dodge Neon behaving suspiciously and called the license plate in to police, detectives quickly searched Kansas City’s database of 11 million images collected from digital “automated license plate readers,” tracing the plate to various locations, an address and, eventually, Mohammed Pedro Whitaker. Without Illinois license plate G86-5203 — and the police department’s database — Whitaker might still be at large.
While Whitaker’s capture may have been the biggest law enforcement coup yet for the technology, it has not eased the concerns of civil libertarians who fear that the use of ALPR technology could present another step toward a “Big Brother”-type surveillance society if it is not used correctly.
“The implementation of automatic license plate readers poses serious privacy and other civil liberties threats,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a July 2013 report titled "You Are Being Tracked," warning that the technology could allow law enforcement agencies “to assemble the individual puzzle pieces of where we have been over time into a single, high-resolution image of our lives.”
Critics are also troubled by the use of ALPRs in the private sector — they have become a favored tool for car repo companies and banks in their efforts to track down those who default on auto loans.
“Quite simply, LPR saves lives and improves the safety of our [police] officers, families and communities while preserving personal privacy,” Vigilant Solutions, a leading data company, said in a statement. Most of Vigilant’s data comes from a subsidiary, Digital Recognition Network. According to the company, the subsidiary has increased its plate scans tenfold since September 2010, and adds 70 million scans a month. Its clients include financial industry heavy-hitters such as Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holdings and Citibank.
