That Radar Speed Road Sign Might Be Saving Your License Plate for Later

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a23550788/dea-license-plate-readers/

A new DEA program will roll out a controversial tool on a national level.

Zooming down the highway past a radar speed sign can serve as a reminder you’re going a little to hard on the gas pedal, but it can also get your license plate number siphoned into a massive data dragnet used by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

A new report in Quartz details an extensive new government contract between the DEA and RU2 Systems, a manufacturer of Radar Speed Display Trailers, and other contractors based in California, Virginia and Canada.

The machines use light-emitting diodes to show your MPH on the highway. (If you’ve driven on a busy motorway, you’ve undoubtedly seen one.) But the DEA’s new hardware isn’t the mere purchase for the sake of traffic safety: The machines will be “be retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms” meant to target vehicles implicated in crimes, per the Justice Department’s disclosure. Ostensibly a program to curb drug trafficking, the DEA describes its National License Plate Reader Program (NLPR) thusly in its 2018 budget:

“A federation of independent federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement license plate readers linked into a cooperative system, designed to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to interdict drug traffickers, money launderers or other criminal activities on high drug and money trafficking corridors and other public roadways throughout the U.S.”

The “drug and money trafficking corridors” are ostensibly roadways throughout the American southwest and southern border region.

This is an old chestnut that’s prompted litigation and controversy before. In April, the Virginia Supreme Court reopened a 2016 case concerning data pulled from LPRs by police, the Washington Post reported earlier this year. According to the National Conference of State Legislators, 14 states have already clamped down on LPR tech, passing “statutes relating to the use of ALPRs or the retention of data collected by ALPRs.” Arkansas, for instance, prohibits their use entirely.

There’s already a robust network of local police forces using the technology, not to mention a for-profit industry undergirding its use. Vigilant Solutions, a manufacturer of law enforcement tools, boasted in a 2015 press release that its technology enabled “3 billion historical LPR scans and over 100 million new LPR scans monthly.”

Privacy advocates aren’t enthused by the DEA’s new directive. The Electronic Frontier Foundation lists a few of its grievances with the LPRs on its website, writing:

“ALPR data can paint an intimate portrait of a driver’s life and even chill First Amendment protected activity. ALPR technology can be used to target drivers who visit sensitive places such as health centers, immigration clinics, gun shops, union halls, protests, or centers of religious worship.”

The DEA didn’t respond to Quartz’ multiple requests for comment, although former NYPD Detective Sergeant Joe Giacolone did explain the agency’s rationale to the publication.

“We don’t know when somebody’s going to commit a crime, we don’t know when somebody’s going to run over somebody and take off. So that data should be there forever. We never know when we’re going to need it,” Giacolone said.

 

Filed under: General Problems