#alpr data

Minnesota: There was big news this week in license plate reader data as the State classified the data as private in an opinion issued by the Commissioner.  Both the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press covered the change to what data is now private and what is public.

However, this isn't the end of the story. The Minnesota legislator is still at work on the license plate controversy. In particular, an amendment passed a key House committee that would eliminate or  the storage of "non-hit" license plates and limit the retention time of the data.

This slide from a 2011 Minneapolis Police Department presentation reveals a bit more about ALPR scanners than what we had previously known.  This unredacted version shows the location of one of the stationary cameras on the Broadway Bridge between North and NE Minneapolis. The MPD refuses to disclose the location of the stationary cameras yet this document clearly reveals the location of two more of the cameras.

In other words, Broadway Avenue Bridge and Plymouth Ave Bridge are the two known locations of the stationary cameras.

Georgia: Sometimes even local government's purchase ALPR cameras. Sadly, the City Council of Holly Springs, Georgia approved the purchase of four ALPR cameras.  The police state is everywhere :-/

New Jersey: Homeland Security is also funding ALPR readers for Emerson, NJ according to this recent article.  In many of the articles, shared on this blog, DHS is a common funding source for these expensive readers.

Texas: Dallas will be installing the license plate reader technology this Spring in its police squad cars. According to this article, there is debate over how long the data may be kept and if it should be kept on non-hit vehicles. Interestingly, the article mentions how the "fusion center" may have access to this data in Dallas.

Track the Police appears to be one reason the City of Minneapolis cites that license plate reader data cannot remain public. A request was made to  IPAD (Information Policy Analysis Division) for a copy of the public application on the reasons why the City of Minneapolis suddenly wants all the license plate reader data classified as private.

From the report:

A recently created blog tracks movements of police and law enforcement personnel vehicles: http://trackthepolice.tumblr.com. The owner of that site welcomes submissions of ALPR data from anywhere in the country where ALPR systems are being used and states, "If they want to watch us, we'll watch them back."