"I Know Where You've Been"

License plate scanners in Utah - How much info should be stored, and for how long?

Senator Todd Weiler said it well: "On the one hand, this technology is cool, but it's also creepy," he told the Associated Press.

License plate scanners are already in use by law enforcement agencies. The devices can take a snapshot of a license plate as a car zooms by, and then run the plates through software to compare them against criminal databases, or lists of registered drivers to find the unregistered or uninsured.

Sen. Weiler said police agencies in Utah currently store the information collected by scanners for up to two years.

Sen. Weiler plans to introduce a bill this session to place limits on the amount of time that scanner information can be stored to six months. He believes this will enable law enforcement to use it for good - helping track down stolen vehicles, or spot a suspected criminal on his getaway - while minimizing the risk of its being utilized for inappropriate uses, such as evidence in divorce cases.

He falls in the middle of the spectrum on the debate, with the ACLU advocating a law to restrict storage to just 12 hours, and Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel saying police should be able to store it as long as they like.

It's possible that the Senator has not only Utah law enforcement in mind, but also Federal agencies. The DEA approached Utah last year with a request to install stationary scanners on I-15 in southern Utah. That means that everyone who traveled that road would have their time, date and location stored in a DEA database.

Senator Weiler has got this one right. There is too much potential for privacy abuses with indefinite storage, and there should be a limit on how long the information can be stored. There doesn't seem to be any scientific way to determine the best time frame, and I would be inclined to shorten it to three months, but I am willing to support a bill that limits storage to six months.

Further Information:

Daily Herald - License Plate Scanners Spark Legislative Debate

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/legislature/license-plate-scanners-spark-legislative-debate/article_5f8f85e6-56b0-11e2-9924-001a4bcf887a.html

Deseret News - DEA Withdraws Request to Install License Plate Scanners

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865557302/DEA-withdraws-request-to-install-license-plate-readers.html

Salt Lake Tribune - Utah Law Enforcement Scanning License Plates

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54341662-78/plate-license-data-scanners.html.csp

What you can do:

Shoot a quick email to your state representative and state senator and chime in - let them know how you feel about it. Should law enforcement be able to store data from scanners 12 hours? 6 months? Indefinitely? Or some other length of time? 

Find your representative and senator here:

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