Police Plate Surveillance Device

Not A Threat To Privacy, Chief Says

By Andrew Gorosko

In the past several weeks, police have been using a new electronic surveillance device now in their law enforcement toolkit designed to help them rapidly detect any vehicle marker plates that may be linked to outstanding motor vehicle and/or criminal violations. Despite the device’s ability to record and store information in a database on the location of vehicles over time, Newtown’s police chief says the surveillance does not pose a threat to the privacy rights of Newtowners.

The equipment, which is generally known as a “marker plate reader,” includes two electronic cameras, which mount atop the trunk of a police car, plus specialized software that runs on a police cruiser’s laptop computer. The system provides police inside that police car with an electronic alert when a camera has photographed a marker plate that is linked to a motor vehicle and/or criminal violation.

Police would then verify that violation before making an arrest of the person driving the photographed vehicle, provided that the driver is the person against whom the violation is pending.

Asked this week whether police’s use of such a device poses “invasion of privacy” issues, Police Chief Michael Kehoe said that it does not.

The marker plate reader, which police have alternately mounted on both marked and unmarked police cars, is being used in public places and thus does not pose privacy issues, he said.

“When you’re in public, your privacy rights diminish remarkably, “ Chief Kehoe said.

Police plan to use the device while traveling through parking lots, logging information about the vehicles parked there, he said. While commercial parking lots may be privately owned, they are places that are open to the public.

Police plan to use the marker plate reader as a routine law enforcement tool, he said, adding that because police received the device recently, they are still learning about its use.

“We’re still in the training and experimental stages,” he said. “There’s a lot to it,” he added.

So far, police have detected some marker plates linked to vehicle registration suspensions and arrest warrants, he said.

Chief Kehoe stressed that when the computer system connected to the electronic cameras alerts police that a marker plate is linked to a motor vehicle and/or criminal violation, police verify the accuracy of that information before proceeding with any arrests.

The information kept in the plate reader’s database is repeatedly updated, he said. He declined to disclose how often such information is updated, citing security concerns.

The marker plate data that police photograph with the device is stored for potential future use as evidence, in the event that such evidence may become useful to police for an investigation, he said. Such information would document the physical location of a given vehicle at a certain point in time or over a series of points in time.

As police continue to photograph vehicles with the marker plate reader, their informational database will grow, Chief Kehoe said.

Chief Kehoe said he expects that police will be using the marker plate reader on a daily basis.

Newtown police and other area police departments recently acquired the $18,000 piece of equipment through a law enforcement grant.

Police may use the gear while they are traveling on roadways or while parked.

The types of violations that most likely will be detected through the electronic system would include unregistered vehicles, suspended vehicle registrations, uninsured vehicles, Amber alert, and terrorist alert situations. The equipment may be used to identify stolen vehicles.

In the past, state law required motorists to post decals on their front windshields listing the expiration date of their vehicle’s registration. That registration decal requirement is no longer in effect. The marker plate reader would now be used to detect expired vehicle registrations.