Alameda: Police cars to get license-plate readers
Source: Oakland Tribune
Alameda police cars will use automated license-plate readers now that the City Council has approved funding the equipment, despite critics saying it can undermine people's privacy.
The council unanimously approved spending up to $80,000 to equip four patrol cars with three cameras each, allowing them to register hundreds of license plates per minute on moving and parked vehicles. The collected information will include a photo of each plate, GPS coordinates and the date and time the image was captured.
"We drive down public streets, roads and highways all the time, and our license-plate numbers are not protected information," Vice Mayor Marilyn Izzy Ashcraft said before the May 20 vote. "There is no expectation of privacy, I would argue."
Data collected by the license-plate readers will be stored for six months and then purged, unless investigators are using it or think they might need it for a case.
Read more: http://www.insidebayarea.com/my-town/ci_25854169/alameda-police-cars-get-license-plate-readers