ACLU Seeks Details on Automatic License Plate Readers in Massive Nationwide Request
Information Sought on How Cameras are Used by Police Agencies and How Data are Stored
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
NEW YORK – American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in 38 states, including the ACLU of Nevada, sent requests today to local police departments and state agencies that demand information on how they use automatic license plate readers (ALPR) to track and record Americans’ movements.
ALPRs are cameras mounted on patrol cars or on stationary objects along roads – such as telephone poles or the underside of bridges –that snap a photograph of every license plate that enters their fields of view. Typically, each photo is time, date, and GPS-stamped, stored, and sent to a database, which provides an alert to a patrol officer whenever a match or “hit” appears.
The ACLU of Nevada requested information about possible use of ALPRs by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Reno Police Department, and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Department, as well as requesting information about the funding of such technology by the Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Assistance.
The ACLU of Nevada’s complete press release is attached (PDF) and available at: https://aclunv.org/press/aclu-seeks-details-automatic-license-plate-readers-massive-nationwide-request.
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