More Police Surveillance in Brookline
Update: Brookline ultimately rejected state funding for these devices, due to the privacy concerns.
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The Brookline Police department is the latest to get roof mounted police cruiser cameras that scan and track all license plates within range.
According to the Globe, the Brookline Police received a federal grant to purchase the system, which includes the cruiser mounted cameras, and computer system software that does the scan that translates the images captured into plate numbers, and matches that with law enforcement databases. It also saves and tags the image, time, and location via GPS systems, so a record of all image matches are saved, regardless of whether or not the licence tag is a “hit” and is actually sought by the police.
Identifying stolen cars are the most common usage for these systems, but they are also able to identify unregistered cars, drivers with suspended licenses, nationwide amber alerts, local “tow lists” for multiple unpaid parking fines, and whatever other data is input at a local, state or federal level.
These systems remain controversial because of these abilities to track citizens accused of no wrongdoing. All the data is stored somewhere, and can be shared in nationwide government databases from systems across the country.
One Brookline town meeting member read the documention for this particular Automatic Licence Plate Reader (ALPR) and noted that the images captured include the car itself, potentially any cargo and passengers, and other distinctive markings, including bumper stickers. The officer quoted in the article dismissed this criticism, saying that this information isn’t displayed. But though the officer in the vehicle is only alerted with hits that match the licence tag, all these images are still collected and stored somewhere.
The Brookline Police Chief stated that he will periodically report on this systems usage to the Board of Selectmen, and we will look for such reports.
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