SurveillancePolice depts. reviews policy on retaining data from license plate readers

License plate readers (LPRs) have been used more and more by law enforcement agencies across the United States, but as they gain popularity in law enforcement, they have become the subject of debate in many local governments.

LPRs are a group of cameras mounted on  police cruisers. LPRs automatically read a license plate on a nearby car and run the number through a database of stolen cars, Amber Alerts, or outstanding warrants.

The Washington Post reports that the issue that keeps dogging  LPRs is how long the data  collected is being stored after it has been determined that a license plate has received a clean read. The amount of time that data is stored varies depending on the jurisdiction.

Rockville, Maryland City council member Tom Moore has joined a growing group of officials and civil liberty advocates  concerned about the new technology.

“These things are popping up all over the place,” Moore told the Washington Post. “There are a lot of national security grants throwing these things out to local departments.”

Last year the Gazette reported that there were thirty-six LPR systems on squad cars in Montgomery County, Maryland, including three operated by Rockville police. Rockville’s LPRs hold their data for thirty days before it is automatically deleted, according to a memo from the Rockville police chief.

The information from Rockville’s LPR system is also inserted into a server operated by the Montgomery County police, which passes the information on the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (MCAC), a group made up of partners in federal, state, and local agencies.

The MCAC deletes its data after one year, unless it has reason to believe the data will become pertinent at some point in the future. Montgomery County is now reviewing its data retention policy. Options include keeping the information online for a year then archiving it offline and storing it where only law enforcement will have access to the information.

Moore has issue with the data being stored indefinitely.

“We don’t keep permanent locational records of people who haven’t done anything wrong or aren’t suspected of doing anything wrong,” Moore told the Post.

Moore also said Rockville is not under any obligation to share data or images from LPRs with the county and that he wants to hear form privacy advocates and police before proposing a policy for the city on how long to keep information.

“The only way to make sure that this data is not misused in the future is if it’s not there,” Moore saidt.

Rockville City manager Barbara Matthews is in favor of the LPR system and says that holding the information for thirty days give the police time to identify patterns if there is a series of burglaries or car break-ins.

“I think it’s a wonderful technology that has a lot of benefits to any law enforcement agency,” Matthews told thePost.

Rockville Police Chief Terry Treschuk also said the mayor and council plans to review and set a standard for how long LPR data will be stored. Treschuk also said that his office is collecting information on how many arrests or citations can be attributed to LPRs in preparation for a future mayor and council briefing.