Automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems are automatic cameras that are mounted either over a street or in a police cruiser. More information available here They take pictures of the license plates of passing cars, convert these images into computer readable data, and store the information in large databases. 

Use of these ALPRs is on the rise nationally.  Increasingly, police and law enforcement agencies (as well as businesses and other private organizations) are employing these systems to spy on innocent Americans.  In most places, whether an individual is suspected of a crime is irrelevant. Their identity and location are sucked up just like everyone else's and can be used to paint a very accurate picture of everywhere they have been. In many cases this data is stored indefinitely with no meaningful oversight about what it can be used for. 

Often this data is used for discriminatory targeting of minorities as in the case of the NYPD reportedly driving unmarked cars by mosques and using ALPRs to record the license plates of attendees. Likewise, these can reveal whether a person is a regular church goer, a heavy drinker, a member of specific political or activist groups, and so much more. The indiscriminate and incredibly intrusive tracking of innocent Americans which is enabled by this technology is especially chilling in light of last month's revelations about the NSA's vacuuming up of our digital communications.  There seems to be less and less concern on the part of government about who they track.  Now instead of investigating individuals for truly suspicious behavior, everyone is seen as potential suspect of crimes which may not have even taken place.

There is very little oversight regarding how this data is used.  In most states, there are no laws which place any restrictions on what law enforcement agencies can do with it, how long they can save it, or even who is allowed to use ALPR systems.  In fact, there are only two states with positive laws on the books governing ALPR use - including Maine, where the ACLU of Maine and our partners lobbied hard to pass a law limiting their use. The other is our next door neighbor New Hampshire.  In Maine, the data collected may only be used for protecting public safety and transportation infrastructure, commercial motor vehicle screening and inspection, or active criminal investigations based on articulable facts which suggest probable cause that criminal activity is taking place.  Additionally, almost all data collected may only be stored for twenty-one days.  New Hampshire has, with only a few exceptions, a general ban on the use of ALPR technology! 

During a recent trip that I took to Pennsylvania, I decided to try to count the number of license plate readers that I passed on the highway.  I was quite disturbed when I wound up losing count in part due to the innocuous nature of the cameras. Often it is hard to even tell if a device suspended over the highway is even a camera at all!  It makes me all the more proud to say that Maine is leading the way when it comes to protecting peoples privacy from overly intrusive use of technology by the government for the purposes of spying on innocent citizens. 

As some readers may be aware, we recently passed two laws (LD 1377 and LD 1040) which ensure that law enforcement must get a warrant based on probable cause before accessing an individual’s cell phone records or placing a camera on an individual's property.  I for one am proud of Maine's commitment to privacy, but that being said, we must remain vigilant.  In this climate in which government surveillance has become commonplace, our hard earned protections are only as strong as those who continue to defend them.