So what is your preferred level of data sets? What databases would you get rid of, and how much potential crime are you willing to tolerate for that belief?
No, none of that information is public, because most of us post anonymously. And I’d only give that information to a cop if I was legally required to do so. And, anyways, he’d be a guy from my hometown that I’d probably personally know. But, even if I didn’t, if something bad were to happen, I’d know how it happened and by whom. I don’t know you. You claim to be trustworthy, but I don’t know that.
Plus, maybe I’m being idealistic, but I’d think that, if the cop was not getting my information for official purposes, he’d get in trouble for it when I figure out what happened.
I guess if you are using public registered roads with your registered car they have a right to. Driving isn’t really a right, that’s why you have to get your car inspected and registered and follow all of the rules and laws. Otherwise any old crazy would be driving on the road.
I don’t like people invading my privacy either, but this doesn’t seem like it’s out of the purview of the law.
This re-kindles discussion of the “mosaic theory” of privacy.
The concept here is that while it’s true that any given trip, or any given location of your car, is exposed to the public, the sum total of all your locations, or all your trips over many days, is not. In other words, sure, if you’re driving past the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street at noon, you can hardly complain about your privacy if the government sees you or your license plate, because ten thousand other eyes are seeing it as well.
But how many of those ten thousand eyes ALSO see you down going downtown towards the tunnel, heading south on I-95 through Jersey, and stopping for gas at the Chesapeake House in Maryland? Any single spotting of you is in public, yes, but those individual pieces are like single shards of glass in a mosaic: they don’t reveal a thing about the picture the mosaic conveys. Only someone with the ability to see all the pieces, in their correct order and placement, knows what the mosaic is.
Proponents of this theory – not me, I should add – suggest that this is a distinction to counter the “but it’s in public” argument.
It’s not just law enforcement that uses license plate readers, either.
A private company called the National Vehicle Service has stationary LPRs that match license plates against a list of stolen plates.
If one of the readers gets a hit on a plate that has been reported as stolen, NVS sends a message to the local law enforcement agency notifying them that a vehicle that was reported stolen was operating in their jurisdiction at a certain place and time.
^And they profit, how?
Here’s a link to the old thread I started. Some good discussion in there.
We still don’t wash those damn cars…
I’m guessing finance and insurance companies pay to have access to the service, or to be notified if a car they financed is located.
I don’t know about that company, but others will get a ‘reward’ of some kind from insurance or finance companies. Years back I had my car driven to California because I would be spending a year out there. While waiting for it to arrive I got a call from the leasing company telling me my car had been stolen. It took a number of calls to find out that it had been spotted by one of these companies, through an agent who was probably just a hotel clerk. No theft, no crime, just a little side business for a two bit shamus.
Well crap, I had the perfect crime planned but now I’ve got to rethink everything and adjust for the possibility I’d encounter a reader/tracker along the way.
Last night an Amber Alert was over quickly when the father was apprehended during “a traffic stop” in his estranged wife’s SUV. It happened so quickly my immediate suspicion was that her plates were ‘hot’ in the reader/tracker database. Pretty impressive really.
I guess the only thing that bothers me about this is that it’s not just like that case where a particular vehicle is the search target. In reality everyone car’s plates are not just read but also entered into a database no matter if you’re performing an illegal act or not. The time, date and location of law abiding, innocent citizen’s movements are now recorded and open to scrutiny. That I find disturbing.
If it was an Amber Alert, every cop in the area is going to have a description of the vehicle, and possibly pulling over any vehicle that resembles it. Impressive yes, but it doesn’t necessarily take LPR to make that happen.
Ahhh. I was picturing something along the line of a phone call. “Hello. I know where your car is and can give you that information for a one time charge of”. . .
And some people have liability only, not replacement. I know on 2 of my 3 I only have liability [my Jetta, the newest and favorite has full even though it is not on any sort of payment plan. Typically cars on loans have to have replacement.]
How do you wear out a transponder?
Great, some new form of telephone spam 
I’ll accept that license plate scanning and the possible subsequent alert to law enforcement is a good thing. I utterly reject the notion that law enforcement will periodically purge these kinds of records. I don’t like the idea that ten years from now some agency can tell me my vehicle was spotted on highway 36 at 2:05 p.m. on April 12, 2013.
Most of them have no intention of purging them, and in fact it’s a possibility that info from LPRs may be loaded into a statewide database accessible to any law enforcement agency.
So just imagine getting pulled over for a little infraction. The cop runs your plate not only to check to see your registration and make sure it’s not a stolen vehicle, but they also run it through the LPR database.
Let’s say you happen to drive through an iffy part of town every so often at around 10:30 at night, because you like to go to a yoga class there. Happens to be an LPR there, so the officer sees that you make regular late-night trips to a part of town that’s known to be a goood place to score some weed.
Think his questions are going to stop with “License and registration, please?”