The next time you’re cruising down through the streets of Boston – unpaid parking tickets bursting from the creases of your glove compartment – and you spot an idle police cruiser with an officer inside staring down your jalopy, fret not. The Boston City Council has filed a motion (see: below) to host a hearing on whether or not Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) scanners in violation of the rights of citizens.
ALPR scanners are capable of pulling information on a vehicle traveling as fast as 130 mph at 90 percent accuracy. When the details of the vehicle are identified authorities can then cross-reference them against other details stored in a database, track the physical location of the vehicle and store and share the data.
Though the Boston City Council is fully aware that the Boston Police Department has a governing system of how these scanners are put to use and how data is collected, City Councilor At-Large Ayanna Pressley is calling for more defined policies, keeping in line with Mayor Marty Walsh‘s call for more transparency amongst municipal entities.
“There’s a fine balance between tools police use to protect our safety and individual privacy rights,” Councilor Pressley’s Chief of Staff Jessica Taubner told BostInno. “Any taxi cab driver or truck driver could buy these scanners and use them.”
According to Pressley’s motion, “The BPD collects an average of 3,630 license plate reads per day and stores the information for a period of 90 days, unless data is needed longer for investigatory or intelligence purposes or for discovery/exculpatory evidence,” as per September 2012 data released at the request of the ACLU.
The problem, however, is that there are no distinguished guidelines on how the Department uses, stores and retains license plate information and it could be in violation of Bostonians’ civil liberties.
Pressley’s hearing hopes to “improve the Boston Police Department’s automatic license plate recognition scanner policy and discuss ways to ensure protection of individual privacy rights and safeguard against potential abuses of civil liberties.” She urges, too, that BPD and ACLU of Massachusetts representatives attend and participate in the hearing to outline initiatives for the benefit of everyone.
BostInno reached out directly to the Boston Police Department but they have yet to comment.
