[Infowarrior] - DC Metro Area to use License Plate Readers

[Richard Forno]

License Plate Readers To Be Used In D.C. Area

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2008; C01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081602218_pf.html

Authorities plan to install about 200 automated license plate readers  
on police vehicles and alongside roads in the Washington area to  
thwart potential terrorist attacks, dramatically expanding the use of  
a high-tech tool previously aimed at parking scofflaws and car thieves.

Top homeland security officials from Maryland, Virginia and the  
District agreed last week to spend $4.5 million on the new system,  
officials said Friday. The funds will come from a $59.8 million  
federal homeland security grant for the D.C. area announced last  
month. That grant also will be used to outfit police with radiation  
detectors, improve hazmat and bomb squads and provide equipment to  
hospitals, officials decided.

License plate scanners, also known as tag readers, took off in Britain  
in the 1990s as a way to deter Irish Republican Army attacks, and  
police here have started using the technology to identify stolen  
vehicles and illegally parked cars. A handful of the devices are in  
use by law enforcement agencies in the Washington region for such tasks.

The new project is much broader, installing cameras on about 160  
police vehicles and at 40 fixed sites, such as airports or highway  
entrances, officials say. It appears to be one of the most extensive  
license reading systems in the nation, according to privacy experts.

"This is a vast expansion of the technology, and a vast change in the  
goal of the technology," said Melissa Ngo, publisher of http://www.privacylives.com 
, a site about privacy and civil liberties issues. Ngo, a former  
journalist who has worked at The Washington Post and other  
publications, questioned the outlay of so much money on a project  
described as an anti-terrorist tool.

"Do they have any proof that this works?" Ngo asked.

Arlington Police Capt. Kevin Reardon, who has worked on planning the  
new system, said the tag readers have shown that they can boost police  
efficiency.

"The technology has reached the point where it's very good now. It  
puts a tool in the hands of police officers out in the street to help  
fight terrorism," said Reardon, who works in his department's homeland  
security unit.

The readers will scan the license plate of every vehicle that zooms by  
and run the numbers through federal criminal databases and terrorist  
watch lists, Reardon said. Maryland, Virginia and the District could  
plug in additional databases.

When the machines get "hits," they instantly notify police or other  
law enforcement officials. The devices can typically read hundreds of  
plates an hour.

Civil liberties advocates say the tag readers are the latest sign of  
how surveillance programs are expanding in U.S. cities, driven by  
terrorism fears and rapidly developing technology. New York officials  
said last week that they plan to scan the license plates of all cars  
and trucks entering Manhattan as part of a new security system that  
also involves thousands of closed-circuit cameras.

In the District, the government plans to use $10 million from another  
homeland security grant to centralize monitoring of the city's growing  
network of closed-circuit cameras at schools, public buildings and  
other places. Although city officials say the project is aimed at  
improving emergency response, it has stirred fierce opposition from  
some D.C. Council members.

Privacy advocates say they are concerned about what is done with the  
images picked up.

"What's going to happen to the data?" asked MarcRotenberg, executive  
director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which monitors  
civil liberties issues. "The Department of Homeland Security will now  
have an enormous amount of information about the travel habits of  
Washington area residents."

Rotenberg questioned whether the terrorist databases connected to the  
readers would be any more reliable than the much-criticized watch  
lists used at airports.

Authorities say many of the details of the new program are being  
worked out. But Reardon said that at least in the short term,  
officials don't plan to store data on the scanned license plates,  
except for those associated with terrorism or other crime.

"We'll have to carefully weigh all those [privacy] issues and make  
sure we do it the right way," said Andrew Lauland, the top homeland  
security official in Maryland.

But, he said, license plates are open to view by any passerby. "So  
there's nothing intrusive about it," he said.

In some ways, the new system might be less invasive, Reardon said.  
Currently, police can run the plate number of any vehicle, turning up  
the name of the owner, he said. The new system pulls up information  
only on cars linked to crime or terrorism, he said.

If a vehicle has no such associations, "you're not even in the  
database," he said.

Lauland said the system could be useful in such incidents as the  
hijacking of a fuel tanker in Baltimore last fall that raised fears of  
potential terrorism. The vehicle was found in the District, and a  
terror connection was ruled out.

In England, one of the suspects in last year's botched car bomb  
attacks in London and Glasgow was arrested after his license plate was  
picked up by roadside cameras.

Reardon said, however, that there might be a time delay of up to  
several hours in getting information on wanted cars into the license  
plate devices being installed in police vehicles. He said the devices  
would be useful for more than just potentially stopping terrorists.  
"It will help us identify other types of criminal activity" by  
detecting cars used in offenses such as bank robberies, he said.

The tag readers are one of about two dozen projects in the Washington  
region that will be funded with the homeland security grant, an annual  
award to urban areas at risk of terrorist attack.

Officials announced that they will also spend $4 million to equip  
police in the area with radiation detectors; $5.6 million for training  
and gear for local bomb squads; and about $18 million for equipment,  
planning and exercises to help the region's hospitals and medical  
personnel cope with disasters.

Robert Malson, president of the D.C. Hospital Association, said he was  
grateful that state and local officials had devoted so much of the  
grant to the medical sector.

"Normally they focus most of the money on government agencies, but the  
hospitals are a critical part of the response to any natural disaster  
or terrorist attack," he said.

The $59.8 million urban area grant to the region was smaller than the  
$61.6 million it received last year from the Department of Homeland  
Security. However, the D.C. area also received a new homeland-security  
grant this year, of $11.5 million, to help it prepare for such  
catastrophes as the detonation of a nuclear bomb.

Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.