LINCOLN, Neb. (Jan. 10, 2017) – A bill filed in the Nebraska legislature 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. Matt Hansen (D-Dist. 26) introduced LB93 on Jan. 5. The legislation would restrict the use of ALPRs to specific law enforcement functions, and place strict limits on the storage and sharing of any data collected by such systems.

LB93 would prohibit the use of ALPRs except for specified law enforcement activities, including locating missing persons, persons with outstanding traffic or parking violations, vehicles in violation of registration requirements and persons subject to arrest warrants.

The bill’s strength lies in its strict limits on data retention and sharing. The legislation generally prohibits storage or sharing of ALPR data. Government agencies would be prohibited from retaining data for more than six months without a warrant, a court issued preservation order or if the information is part of an ongoing investigation provided the data is a confirmed match to an alert. Any data retained as part of an ongoing investigation must be immediately destroyed at the conclusion of the investigation.

The bill also stipulates that any data entered manually into the system by an officer must be purged at the end of his shift.

Finally, the legislation mandates strict reporting requirements for any agency using ALPRs.

Passage of LB93 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 vehicles. They’ve engaged in this for over 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 this legislation would take a major step toward blocking that program from continuing in Nebraska. 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, 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 this legislation 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 Nebraska, and elsewhere.

NEXT STEPS

LB93 was referred to the Judiciary Committee committee. It will have to pass the committee by a majority vote before moving on to the next step in the legislative process.