JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (April 6, 2016) – An important Missouri Senate committee passed a bill that would put limitations on the storage and sharing of information collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs) by law enforcement in the state, and place significant roadblocks in the way of a federal program using states to help track the location of millions of everyday people through pictures of their license plates.
Sen. Will Kraus (R-Lee’s Summit) introduced Senate Bill 1040 (SB1040) back in February. The legislation would bar the storage of data collected by automatic license plate readers for more than 30 days without one of the following.
- A court-approved preservation request
- A published law enforcement organization policy
- A warrant
On April 6, the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee approved SB1040 with a do-pass recommendation.
Under the proposed law, law enforcement organization policy must limit access to captured plate data to detectives and automated license plate reader system auditors after the initial 30-day period, prohibit access to such captured plate data by all other law enforcement officers after the initial 30-day period, restrict access to criminal justice purpose only, and require destruction of any information after one year unless a court grants a preservation request.
SB1040 bars the sharing of ALPR data with any federal agency without a warrant or a court-approved preservation request, or if exigent circumstances exist. The proposed law would completely prohibit routine sharing of ALPR information with the feds.
Any information preserved in violation of the law would be inadmissible in any trial, hearing or legal proceeding.
Passage of SB1040 would prevent the state from creating permanent databases using information collected by ALPRs, and would make it highly unlikely that such data would end up in federal databases.
IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the federal government, via the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) tracks the location of millions of vehicle. They’ve engaged in this for nearly eight years, all without a warrant, or even public notice of the policy.
State and local law enforcement agencies operate most of these tracking systems, paid for by federal grant money. The DEA then taps into the local database to track the whereabouts of millions of people – for the simple act of driving – without having to operate a huge network itself.
Since a majority of federal license plate tracking data comes from state and local law enforcement, passage of SB1040 would take a major step toward blocking that program from continuing in Missouri. The feds can’t access data that doesn’t exist.
“No data means no federal license plate tracking program,” Tenth Amendment Center founder and executive director Michael Boldin said.
Law enforcement generally configures ALPRs to store the photograph, the license plate number, and the date, time, and location of vehicles. But according to newly disclosed records obtained by the ACLU via a Freedom of Information Act request, the DEA is also captures photographs of drivers and their passengers.
According to the ACLU:
“One internal 2009 DEA communication stated clearly that the license plate program can provide ‘the requester’ with images that ‘may include vehicle license plate numbers (front and/or rear), photos of visible vehicle occupants [redacted] and a front and rear overall view of the vehicle.’ Clearly showing that occupant photos are not an occasional, accidental byproduct of the technology, but one that is intentionally being cultivated, a 2011 email states that the DEA’s system has the ability to store “up to 10 photos per vehicle transaction including 4 occupant photos.”
With the FBI rolling out facial a nationwide recognition program last fall, and the federal government building biometric databases, the fact that the feds can potentially access stored photographs of drivers and passengers, along with detailed location data, magnifies the privacy concerns surrounding ALPRs.
Passage of SB1040 would represent a good first step toward putting a big dent in federal plans to continue location tracking, and expanding its facial recognition program. The less data the state makes available to the federal government, the less ability they have to track people in Missouri.
NEXT STEPS
SB1040 will now move on to the full House for a vote.
In Missouri: take all the steps to support this bill at THIS LINK.
All other states, start at THIS LINK.
