Legislation currently being considered by the Virginia General Assembly would prevent the indefinite retention of data, collected by police from license plate readers, unless there is a pending criminal investigation. AAA Mid-Atlantic, a leading advocate for the rights of motorists, today came out in strong support of the legislation which is gaining traction with lawmakers.
Every day police in Virginia and across the country use vehicle-mounted license-plate-readers (LPRs) to take pictures of the license plates of vehicles that pass them. These readers serve as essential tools in reducing auto thefts and in removing wanted criminals from our streets because they instantly alert law enforcement when a stolen vehicle passes, or when a vehicle connected to a crime or criminal passes.
The problem, according to AAA, is that there is currently no law limiting the retention of the databases created by LPRs, which can take about 1,800 or more pictures per minute. HB 1673 (Delegate Anderson) / SB965 (Senator Peterson), if passed, would solve that problem by amending the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act, and prevent law-enforcement agencies in Virginia from retaining data collected by LPRs for more than seven days unless a warrant has been issued. Delegate Anderson’s bill passed out of a Militia and Police- Public Safety Sub-Committee: #2 this morning and is on its way to the full committee where it will be heard tomorrow morning at nine-o’clock. Senator Peterson’s bill has also met with early success, passing out of its assigned committees and now being heard by the full Senate.
The bills seek to codify a legal opinion already rendered about LPR data retention. In 2013, then-Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli issued a statement that if the data collected is not found to be relevant “to investigations and intelligence gathering relating to criminal activity” and classified as “criminal intelligence information” that it “may not lawfully be collected.”
Immediately after the Attorney General’s opinion was rendered, the Virginia State Police reported their retention of data to be just 24 hours, after which it is purged. Subsequent investigations, however, revealed that others were keeping the data for as long as two years, despite the opinion. Last year The Washington Post revealed law enforcement agencies in Northern Virginia have varying rules for retaining the data. Currently, the Alexandria Police Department retains such data for six months, as opposed to its past practice of holding the data for as long as two years. In contrast, authorities in Fairfax County and Loudoun County retain the data for as long as one year. Data is also held for six-months in both Arlington County and Prince William County.
The legislative debate in Richmond over the usage and retention of data from license plate readers has intensified in the wake of revelations that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has implemented a “massive secret national license plate reader program.” According to DEA records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), there were over “345 million records in the database.”
AAA has a problem with the retention of data which is any longer than needed for police to compare it to local and national crime data banks and/or for any other purposes that are required to protect public safety. “License plate readers are useful for legitimate law enforcement purposes. AAA simply believes that there needs to be a balance between beneficial police work and a respect for personal privacy,” said Martha Mitchell Meade, Manager of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
Today, AAA Mid-Atlantic is calling upon its 846,000 Virginia members to contact their legislators to ask for support for license plate reader bills that would help protect motorists’ privacy. The bottom line according to Meade, “Motorists not involved in any crime that drive in Virginia should have a reasonable expectation of privacy, free from government tracking.”
Long a responsible and effective voice at the local, state and national levels, AAA seeks to protect and improve the rights and privacy of motorists and travelers. AAA is the nation’s premier auto club with nearly 55 million members nationwide and was founded as an advocate for motorists, an advocacy effort that has continued for over 110 years.
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