DES MOINES – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Wednesday that government is “increasingly using new technology to collect information about all of us, all the time, and to store it forever – providing a complete record of our lives for it to access at will” and that license plate readers are one of the main tools used to create this database.
The ACLU said Wednesday that “license plate readers capture vast amounts of data on innocent people” and that “these devices snap photos of every passing car, not just those registered to people suspected of crimes – virtually all of the data license plate readers gather is about people who are completely innocent.”
The ACLU documented police surveillance after reviewing 26,000 pages of material gathered through public records requests from across the United States.
The ACLU says that the Minnesota State Patrol deletes all data after 48 hours. The Iowa State Patrol does not use license plate reader technology.
“Should the government be logging for months, years, or indefinitely the movements of the other 99 percent of people, who are innocent?” the ACLU asked.
Don’t worry, the government is just listening in on your calls to see how much you’re enjoying your freedom.
Come on ACLU – you were all exercised in the past when you thought the FBI/police/ICE/ATF/etc. were profiling so the alternative was to gather information on everyone under the sun.
Now you jump out in front of an issue that you had a hand in creating and will likely file suit so you can get more federal funding for your activities.
It is time for you and everyone else to acknowledge that terrorists are most likely Islamic and that our security efforts are best focused on them. This mode of focus has worked very well for EL AL for quite some time.
It is time for us to stop this politically-correct delusional thinking and get real.
@4ever49-I don’t always agree with you but I certainly do on this post. You have hit the nail right on the head. Good post.
People from every political vantage point share in the concern about government gathering information on its citizens. Why should the ACLU be different. Look at what the raging liberal ex-president Carter has to say about government spying, Snowden and the Zimmerman verdict. Sometimes good old fashioned common sense breaks out into public discourse.
Awe, who needs the ACLU? I mean, who would possibly want civil liberties? The GOP, Hannity and Rush have been trying to destroy them for years.
you are a frikken idiot
@maybe-yes, he certainly is.