Portland Police Collect Thousands Of License Plate Numbers
NPR
Thursday, December 12, 2013
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The "Automatic License Plate Reader" used by the Portland police department can collect thousands of plates numbers in a day. (Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB)
In Portland, Oregon, a new crime-fighting technology is coming under scrutiny. Cameras on police cars are collecting and storing up to 128,000 license plate numbers per day.
The system is already solving dozens of crimes. For example, if authorities are investigating a murder and want to check on the whereabouts of a suspect’s car, they can tap into a computer and perhaps find out where it was on a particular day.
But some civil liberties advocates have reservations about the new surveillance system. From the Here & Now Contributors Network, Kristian Foden-Vencil of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.
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