Resentment in the U.S. Over Police License Plate Scanners

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

There is a growing worldwide opposition to the use of systems that scan car number plates.

According to HLS News Wire, the Boston Police Department (BPD) has suspended its use of license plate scanners which enable law enforcement agencies automatically to scan vehicles for traffic or criminal violations. The announcement comes after a Boston Globe investigation raised privacy concerns regarding whether BPD is capable of securing the data collected from the license plate scanners.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

BPD accidentally released to the Globe more than 68,000 plate numbers scanned during a 6-month period, raising privacy alarms. Many of the vehicles were scanned several times within that period.

The release of the data raises questions about whether law enforcement agencies can protect sensitive data accumulated from the scanners. The problem is international as systems like this are already being used in many countries including in Israel.