Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are cameras mounted on patrol cars or on objects along roads – such as telephone poles or the underside of bridges – that snap a photograph of every license plate that enters their fields of view. When the ALPR system captures an image of a license plate, it also tags each file with the time, date, and GPS location of the photograph and stores that information in a database. They can have legitimate and beneficial uses for public safety, but when left unregulated pose a significant danger to the privacy of every New Mexican who drives. This legislation seeks to ensure that, absent a warrant, ALPR records of where New Mexicans who are not suspected of a crime are deleted within thirty (30) days. It will also protect ALPR data from being shared or sold inappropriately.
ALPRs present serious privacy concerns
ALPRs are not only being used to search for suspects but also to keep records on everybody's whereabouts. They are increasingly becoming a tool for mass location tracking and surveillance. Tracking people’s locations constitutes a significant invasion of privacy, which can reveal many things about their lives, such as what friends, doctors, protests, meetings, political activities, or religious institutions a person visits.
Most ALPR data has no legitimate law enforcement use.
ALPRs gather a huge amount of information on innocent people. Analysis by the Auditor of the State of California found that of the 320 million images accumulated by the LAPD, only 400,000 identified a car listed on a hotlist. In other words, nearly 99.9% of the images stored by the LAPD are for vehicles not on a hotlist when the data was captured.
The data are ripe for abuse.
Without proper controls on accessing and retaining the data, law enforcement officers can and have used the data for unethical or even illegal purposes. A 2016 investigation by the Associated Press found that law enforcement officers around the nation “misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work.”
