PHOENIX (CBS5) -
Could big brother be watching? That's what the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to figure out in its newest request about license plate readers.
Law enforcement, red light camera companies, and even repossession trucks use this technology. A license plate reader can be mounted on a light pole or a patrol car. It snaps a picture of your license plate, and if say, if your car is stolen, with this technology someone might be able to tell where it was at a certain time. But how long do they keep this information on file? That's exactly what the ACLU wants to know.
"Basically a camera that takes a picture of every motorist who drives by it, not just those who are suspected of criminal activity or who might have outstanding warrants," described Anjali Abraham, a public policy director with the ACLU of Arizona.
The technology recognizes license plates and captures the image, as well as the date, time, and location. The ACLU is also concerned with how long agencies are keeping that information, so they requested that information from five Valley agencies Monday.
"We don't know how long it's being kept.Only a couple of states have laws as to how long this data can be kept on file," she said, adding that Arizona is not one of those states.
But not all of these license plate readers are created equal. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office tells us their technology - one device on a patrol car - reads the license plates, and that data is stored by DPS. Gilbert police said their two readers affixed to patrol cars capture the image, and it takes an officer to determine whether that plate is connected to a crime. Mesa police said they have 4 readers, with a list from DPS of stolen cars and suspended plates they download 3 times a day. If there's a hit, an officer has to run the plate to get more information. But they say those images of the plates are wiped daily. Gilbert tells us they keep that information for two years, but a spokesman for MCSO did not know. It's a question the ACLU hopes to answer.
"We don't necessarily want the government knowing we've gone to a doctor's office, a political meeting, even a friend's house," Abraham said. "These are private matters that we go about in our private lives."
The ACLU requested information from DPS, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, and Chandler, Phoenix, and Tucson police departments. Arizona is one of 38 states requesting the information.
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