Police say the systems, which are growing in use among municipal departments and were highlighted this month in a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, enhance an officer’s ability to find stolen vehicles, kidnapped children, crime suspects or vehicles with expired registration.
Middleton Police Chief Brad Keil, who recently outfitted a second squad car with the technology, likened it to a police officer on a stakeout.
“It’s nothing that anybody out in public can’t get and an officer could get if they wrote down the license plate of everyone who drove by,” Keil said. “Out in public, there’s really no expectation of privacy.”
But in a recent report titled “You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used To Record Americans’ Movements,” the ACLU warned the technology has the potential to infringe on privacy.