Your Drive Is Being Recorded: How Cameras Build a Record

A new state law is placing limits on how long automatic license plate reader data can be retained and how it may be shared, responding to growing concerns about the use of privately operated camera networks to track vehicle movements.

Law Sets 21-Day Retention Limit

Open-source reporting indicates that as many as 28 agencies and other entities across the state may already be using license plate reader technology. Under the new law, agencies generally must limit retention of the data to 21 days, although certain exceptions apply.

The law also restricts the sale or sharing of license plate reader information for purposes outside narrowly defined law enforcement uses. The retention limit creates a specific deadline for agencies to delete records unless an exception allows them to be preserved.

For commercial drivers and other motorists, the restrictions affect records that can show where and when a vehicle was observed. A typical license plate reader may capture a plate number along with the vehicle’s location and the date and time of the observation.

Expanding Search Capabilities

Flock Safety, a private company that operates public safety cameras in communities across the country, has developed software that allows agencies to search and analyze camera-generated records. The system can combine license plate reader data with police files and other commercial information.

Publicly examined software features have included tools designed to identify vehicles, locate cars that repeatedly travel together and search for people or vehicles based on movement patterns. The broader network can also allow records collected in one community to be accessed by outside agencies, including police departments, universities and airports, depending on the agreements in place.

That capability has raised questions about whether local camera systems can effectively contribute to a larger, searchable database of vehicle movements. Records may remain available in data centers and could potentially be connected with observations collected at other locations.

Accuracy and Privacy Concerns

Analyses of camera data have found that systems can capture millions of images over relatively short periods. In addition to license plates, cameras may record vehicles, bicycles, bumper stickers and other details within their field of view.

Reported errors have included bumper stickers, dealership frames and other graphics being mistaken for license plates. In one cited example, a camera reportedly cropped an American flag patch on a motorcycle as if it were a plate.

A Rhode Island woman also filed a lawsuit after being erroneously arrested and charged with reckless driving and attempting to elude police. The allegations against her were based in part on license plate reader footage, according to the lawsuit.

The new retention and sharing requirements are part of a broader effort by states to define how automatic license plate reader data may be collected, stored and used. The rules may also determine how long vehicle location records remain available to law enforcement and how widely those records can circulate.