WASHINGTON — Drive in the District, and your license plate might be scanned by one of the 250 cameras scattered throughout the city. Local police are storing the data and keeping track of where commuters drive and when, raising privacy concerns for many.
Some of the cameras are hidden from view, while others are mounted on top of police cars. The advanced technology can capture 1800 images a minute on cars going as fast as 150 MPH.
Police say the technology is useful when hunting criminals, but privacy advocates wonder if law enforcement should be allowed to track innocent citizens without a warrant.
“That’s quite a large database of innocent people’s comings and goings,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union’s technology and liberty program, told the Washington Post. “The government has no business collecting that kind of information on people without a warrant.”
In D.C., police keep the information on file for 3 years.