License-Plate Tracking Technology Sought by U.S. Customs

[Purveyor]

By Kathleen Miller and Elizabeth Wasserman Feb 19, 2014 1:49 PM

The U.S. said it’s seeking to get access to or acquire commercial databases for tracking license plates nationwide to help find fugitives and undocumented immigrants, according to a government document.

The Department of Homeland Security is asking companies for proposals to provide or allow access to a database to “track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources,” and shared with law enforcement, according to the solicitation.

The department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will use the National License Plate Recognition database “to assist in the location and arrest of absconders and criminal aliens,” according to the document. The agency said the technology will reduce surveillance man-hours and improve officers’ safety.

The solicitation, first reported by the Washington Post today, doesn’t outline any privacy safeguards for the technology. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have raised questions about whether such tools will be used by governments to keep tabs on innocent Americans.

“License plate readers are just one example of a disturbing phenomenon: The government is increasingly using new technology to collect information about all of us, all the time, and to store it forever,” the ACLU’s Catherine Crump wrote in a report in July.
License Plates

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-19/license-plate-tracking-technology-sought-by-u-s-customs.html

[bluedigger]

1. And the very first justification?

For the children.

"Abducted Children

Mvtrac has systems that collect license-plate data from across the country and store the information. Its databases have been used to recover abducted children, help solve murders and repossess automobiles when owners have missed years of payments, said Scott A. Jackson, the company’s chief executive officer.

Mvtrac plans to bid on the Homeland Security project, he said in a phone interview."

Well, okay, then.