U.S. Justice Department Has Secret, Nationwide License-Plate Tracking Database

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Car & Driver / January 27, 2015

Bad news for anyone who values privacy and the Fourth Amendment.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Justice Department has been secretly expanding its license-plate scanning program to create a real-time national vehicle tracking database monitoring hundreds of millions of motorists.

WSJ pulls no punches in describing the program, calling it nothing less than “a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program.”

The program, established by the Drug Enforcement Agency in 2008, originated as a way of tracking down and seizing cars, money, and other assets involved in drug trafficking in areas of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas where illicit drugs are funneled across the border.

But according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request, and reviewed by WSJ and The Guardian, the goal of the program has always been nationwide expansion—a fact that was never publicly disclosed.

“Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations, according to people familiar with the program, putting a wealth of information in the hands of local officials who can track vehicles in real time on major roadways,” WSJ reports. The paper was unable to determine whether the program falls under the oversight or approval of any U.S. court.

The program uses camera systems at strategic points on major U.S. highways to record time, location, and direction of vehicle travel. Some locations take photos of drivers and passengers, which are sometimes detailed enough to confirm identity, WSJ reports.

Perhaps more chillingly, the documents reviewed by the news outlets indicate that the DEA has also employed license-plate-reading technology to create a “far-reaching, constantly updating database of electronic eyes scanning traffic on the roads to steer police toward suspects.”

Internal documents indicate license-plate readers in locations in New Jersey, Florida, and Georgia, feeding information into a database at the El Paso Intelligence Center, or EPIC, in Texas. Member police agencies from across the country can search EPIC for vehicle records. “Anyone can request information from our [license-plate reader] program, federal, state, or local,” says a May 2010 email quoted by WSJ.

Another document, a memo between the DEA and Customs and Border Protection, hints at the clandestine nature of the program: “this in no way implies that Congress will appropriate funds for such expenditures.”

The stated goal of the DEA program is to “seize cars, cash, and other assets to combat drug trafficking,” part of a controversial practice known as “asset forfeiture,” where law enforcement seizes a suspect’s possessions, sometimes without evidence of a crime.

But state and local law enforcement have tapped the program to hunt for vehicles tied to kidnappings, killings, rapes, and other crimes.

Internal documents from 2010 indicate that the database aided in the seizure of 98 kilograms of cocaine, 7336 kilograms of marijuana, and $866,380 in cash. Those familiar with the program also told WSJ that the system helped authorities find abducted children as part of the Amber Alert system. A Justice Department spokesperson told WSJ the system complies with federal law, saying “it is not new that the DEA uses the license-plate reader program to arrest criminals and stop the flow of drugs in areas of high trafficking intensity.”

A spokesman told WSJ that the agency reduced the length of time it retains data, from two years down to three months.

But opponents point to the rapidly expanding size and capabilities of the program as privacy concerns for law-abiding citizens.

Senator Patrick Leahy, senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for “additional accountability,” saying Americans shouldn’t have to fear “their locations and movements are constantly being tracked and stored in a massive government database.”

“This story highlights yet another way government security agencies are seeking to quietly amplify their powers using new technologies,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU, told the U.K.–based Guardian.

“With its jurisdiction and its finances, the federal government is uniquely positioned to create a centralized repository of all drivers’ movements across the country—and the DEA seems to be moving toward doing just that,” the ACLU warns.

https://www.aclu.org/how-government-tracking-your-movements

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/millions-of-cars-tracked-across-us-in-massive-real-time-spying-program