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Judge orders Fairfax County, Virginia, police to stop collecting data from license plate readers
True Crime
Judge orders Fairfax police to stop collecting data from license plate readers
Victory for privacy advocates could force police statewide to erase license databases
By Tom Jackman
April 2 at 6:00 AM
A Fairfax County judge on Monday ordered the Fairfax police to stop maintaining a database of photos of vehicle license plates, with the time and location where they were snapped, ruling that “passive use” of data from automated license plate readers on the back of patrol cars violates Virginia privacy law. The ruling followed a related finding by the Virginia Supreme Court last year, meaning the case could affect how long — if at all — Virginia police can keep license plate data. ... The ruling by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Smith is a victory for privacy rights advocates who argued that the police could track a person’s movements by compiling the times and exact locations of a car anytime its plate was captured by a license plate reader. Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. said Monday night that he would ask the county attorney to appeal the ruling.
The issue represents another front in the ongoing conflict over the use of emerging technologies by law enforcement. Police say they can, and have, used license plate location data to find dangerous criminals and missing persons. Privacy advocates don’t oppose the use of the technology during an active investigation, but they say that maintaining a database of license plate locations for months or years provides too much opportunity for abuse by the police. Last month, the ACLU disclosed that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was tapping into a vast, national database of police and private license plate readers. Such private databases remain unregulated.
[Are the police tracking you? Push to restrict license plate readers heads to Va. Supreme Court]
The Fairfax judge’s ruling applies only to the Fairfax police, but it may find a receptive audience, and have statewide impact, in the Virginia Supreme Court. Last year, the state supreme court reversed Smith when he threw the case out of court, finding that “the pictures and associated data stored in the police department’s . . . database meet the statutory definition of ‘personal information’” under Virginia’s “Data Act.” The court sent the case back to Smith to determine whether the database classified as an “information system” under the Data Act. Smith then ruled that it does.
The challenge to the practice was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia on behalf of Harrison Neal, a Fairfax man whose license plate and location had been recorded at least twice by the police. The ACLU said Monday that it “welcomes this ruling in favor of our client, as this technology should not be used to monitor the comings and goings of people’s daily lives.”
....
Here is Smith’s ruling:
FxLPRruling0419 by on Scribd
{snip}
Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star. Follow https://twitter.com/TomJackmanWP
Judge orders Fairfax police to stop collecting data from license plate readers
Victory for privacy advocates could force police statewide to erase license databases
By Tom Jackman
April 2 at 6:00 AM
A Fairfax County judge on Monday ordered the Fairfax police to stop maintaining a database of photos of vehicle license plates, with the time and location where they were snapped, ruling that “passive use” of data from automated license plate readers on the back of patrol cars violates Virginia privacy law. The ruling followed a related finding by the Virginia Supreme Court last year, meaning the case could affect how long — if at all — Virginia police can keep license plate data. ... The ruling by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Smith is a victory for privacy rights advocates who argued that the police could track a person’s movements by compiling the times and exact locations of a car anytime its plate was captured by a license plate reader. Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. said Monday night that he would ask the county attorney to appeal the ruling.
The issue represents another front in the ongoing conflict over the use of emerging technologies by law enforcement. Police say they can, and have, used license plate location data to find dangerous criminals and missing persons. Privacy advocates don’t oppose the use of the technology during an active investigation, but they say that maintaining a database of license plate locations for months or years provides too much opportunity for abuse by the police. Last month, the ACLU disclosed that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was tapping into a vast, national database of police and private license plate readers. Such private databases remain unregulated.
[Are the police tracking you? Push to restrict license plate readers heads to Va. Supreme Court]
The Fairfax judge’s ruling applies only to the Fairfax police, but it may find a receptive audience, and have statewide impact, in the Virginia Supreme Court. Last year, the state supreme court reversed Smith when he threw the case out of court, finding that “the pictures and associated data stored in the police department’s . . . database meet the statutory definition of ‘personal information’” under Virginia’s “Data Act.” The court sent the case back to Smith to determine whether the database classified as an “information system” under the Data Act. Smith then ruled that it does.
The challenge to the practice was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia on behalf of Harrison Neal, a Fairfax man whose license plate and location had been recorded at least twice by the police. The ACLU said Monday that it “welcomes this ruling in favor of our client, as this technology should not be used to monitor the comings and goings of people’s daily lives.”
....
Here is Smith’s ruling:
FxLPRruling0419 by on Scribd
{snip}
Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star. Follow https://twitter.com/TomJackmanWP
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
This is GREAT NEWS 
