

Giant American data peddler ChoicePoint last week unveiled a new system in the United Kingdom for analyzing the thousands of license plate numbers collected by automated cameras nestled surreptitiously throughout the English heather. Called the "analyst's workstation" and designed by i2, a ChoicePoint-owned company, the system interfaces with three major databases and uses license plate information to help cops bust bad guys.

Say a passerby spots a suspicious green lorry idling near the scene of a burglary and gets a partial read on the tags. The workstation can call up a list of matching vehicles in the area. If John Smith, the notorious bandit, was rolling through the neighborhood in his green 2001 Ford Windstar at the time, the police now have a good suspect.

The last time we mentioned ChoicePoint in connection with license plate reading (LPR) technology, we got a stern reprimand from corporate flack Chuck Jones, who took issue with our quoting an

LPR expert opining that ChoicePoint, which already harvests extensive personal info from the government, might one day find a use for trading in LPR data.

"To be clear, ChoicePoint does not obtain or sell – and is not interested in obtaining and selling – license plate information collected from license plate reading (LPR) equipment, better known as traffic or red light cameras. ChoicePoint is not in the business of monitoring the daily location of consumers."

\–Chuck Jones

In a follow-up e-mail, Jones said ChoicePoint would never be interested in such a market. Our LPR expert tends to disagree. To be clear ourselves, when reached by phone in Cambridge, i2 spokeswoman Sarah

Cooper said i2 does not obtain or sell LPR data. No word yet on when or if the analyst's workstation will reach American shores.

Readers might also be interested in this aggressively reassuring memo (.pdf) from ChoicePoint that seeks to dispel all your worst fears about the company.

Photo: CJ Sorg