License plate readers in use by repo agents

Police use them to fight crime, we're talking about license plate readers. They are mounted on police cars that scan license plates.

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police use them to fight crime talking
about license plate readers car mounted
cameras that scan license plates but
they aren't the only ones using that
technology repo companies are using the
technology as well taking millions of
photos of cars and then noting the
locations of those vehicle the question
is what happens to all that information
who is able to see it and how is it used
and her husband has more on what's being
called a major threat to your privacy
they can be hard to spot stuck on the
side of tow trucks but sometimes the
camera can't be missed
a viewer sent us these photos of a
reader on an unmarked car I knew exactly
what it was my saw Jason de menthe Oh
spotted the readers on cars driving on
the freeway and in parking lots kind of
felt like a kind of like a violation of
civil liberties violation police
departments use license plate readers to
find stolen cars and criminals but repo
companies are using them to track down
cars targeted for repossession each have
two lenses in a this youtube video from
camera manufacturer MV track explains
how the devices work snapping photos of
license plates while driving and
instantly cross-referencing the plate
numbers with financial institutions when
there's a hit the car becomes a repro
target it can capture vehicles up 260
miles an hour
and it captures them at 3,600 images per
minute since he was so close to a reader
Jason daman toes car was likely
photographed they have no business
knowing where i'm at what I'm doing
where I'm going
what they're doing with information what
databases going into so what happens to
the thousands of pictures taken by these
license plate readers pictures that note
that time and place a car was spotted
attorney Russia ritual soft gave us an
idea I know private investigators who
are using this information to get
information to help lawyers like me in
my cases they're able to locate people
find people they need to serve subpoenas
on find people who you know have
judgments against them that we need to
collect against ritual soft says there
are no laws preventing repo companies
from taking pictures of your car while
you're out in public and storing those
photos in huge databases there is no
constitutional protection against a
private company gathering this
information the Constitution only
protects you against the government
this isn't like this is coming this is
already here as we found out it happened
to us
this is one of our fox10 SUVs and we
work with the private investigator to
see how many times this car was
photographed by a repo company it was
first spotted four years ago in this
parking lot near 90 first avenue $STREET
and peoria
the database search also revealed a
handful of other sightings all over the
valley the car was photographed seven
times in west phoenix at forty third
avenue in indian school a few times in
central phoenix and in arcadia near 36
street and thomas our SUV was also
spotted in this quiet Gilbert
neighborhood in all according to our
database search this car was
photographed nine separate times the
pictures don't reveal much more than the
time and location where the car was
spotted but sometimes that's all that's
needed
what we're looking for in these kinds of
things is is whether they're this
vehicle showing up at a particular place
of multiple times rich robertson is a
private investigator with our three
investigations in mesa this is just kind
of one of the tools in the toolbox that
investigators used to go out and find
witnesses to find property he says the
database he uses is only accessible by
licensed professionals and provides no
personal information
it's not like it's out there that
anybody can go in and access you can get
access to this stuff to go stalk someone
it tells you nothing about the person
you have no idea who drove it how they
got there how long it's been sitting
there there's no real value to this
information in any other context real
but that gives Jason Demento little
comfort to worry about so who may be Who
I am where I'm at where I'm located that
seems more of a violation anything and
because the photos are taken in public
places there are few if any restrictions
on what a private company can do with
the pictures and information
the only way to stop this from happening
is for the legislators to pass laws
until that happens if it ever does the
camera technology that has
revolutionized the repo business will
continue to snap thousands of photos
every minute I major has been fox10 news
and one company vigilant solutions is
taking photos with license plate readers
nationwide the atlantic . com reports
that it has taken roughly 2 billion
license plate photos so far that amounts
to about 80 million per month