Politics & Government
Police Chief Defends Automated License Plate Readers
Proposed legislation would limit the use of automated license plate recognition systems to law enforcement only for ongoing investigations.
Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel asserts that the data collected by automated license plate readers are not used to track people in real time, and proposed legislation to limit its use would hurt law enforcement.
An automated license plate recognition system uses cameras and computer algorithms to convert pictures of license plates into data that a computer can read, according to the definition in House Bill 3289, also known as the Automated License Plate Recognition System Act.
If the bill is passed, law enforcement personnel and their agencies could only use the information collected through these systems to help in ongoing investigations.
Find out what's happening in La Grangefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
It would also mandate that data collected through the system could only be kept for 30 days, unless the information was being used in an ongoing investigation.
Weitzel defended the technology in a letter to the Illinois House of Representatives. He wrote that the only difference between a police officer typing license plate information into a squad car computer and the automated system is that the system works faster.
Find out what's happening in La Grangefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Once a vehicle is operated on the roadway and is registered in the state of Illinois, or any other state for that matter, the expectation of privacy is gone,” Weitzel wrote.
He wrote that law enforcement uses the information collected by automated license plate readers daily to generate investigate leads, to help solve murders, rapes and other serious crimes, and law enforcement in Illinois is united against legislative limitations on the system.
The bill moved out of a House judiciary committee March 25.
It is sponsored by Reps. Peter Breen, (R-Lombard), Ron Sandack, (R-Downers Grove), Patti Bellock (R-Westmont), Margo McDermed (R-Frankfort), Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield), Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville), Jeanne M Ives (R-Wheaton), Thomas Morrison (R-Palatine) and others, according to the Illinois General Assembly.
Read Weitzel’s full letter below.
Image: by Adrian Pingstone - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
