License Plate Readers at Center of Legal Dispute in Fairfax County

This week, a little known technological advance used by police — automatic license plate readers — was front and center after alleged killer Vester Lee Flanagan was caught on Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia by a state trooper who used the technology.

The technology is at the center of a case brought again the Fairfax County Police by a local resident who is being represented by the ACLU.

Today, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Grace Carroll denied the Fairfax County Police Department’s request to dismiss the case, brought by the ACLU challenging the FCPD’s use of automatic license plate readers to “unlawfully collect the personal information of law-abiding Virginians,” according to a news release from the Virginia ACLU.

Filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court, the lawsuit is being brought on behalf of Fairfax County resident Harrison Neal, who, the ACLU says, discovered that his license plate had been scanned twice in one year and stored in a database, even though he wasn’t part of any police investigation.

Neal is represented by ACLU of Virginia staff attorney Hope Amezquita and ACLU of Virginia cooperating attorneys Edward Rosenthal and Christina Brown of the Alexandria firm Rich Rosenthal Brincefield Manitta Dzubin & Kroeger, LLP.

“This case is simple,” said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia. “Our laws make clear that law-abiding Virginians should be free to travel around the Commonwealth without police departments tracking, storing, and sharing their vehicle’s movements with other law enforcement agencies. We thank Judge Carroll for allowing this case to move forward.”

The ACLU chapter noted in a news release that: “Instead of reforming its policies to ensure against the passive collection of the movements of law-abiding Virginians, the FCPD sought to have the case dismissed by arguing that the information collected about our client and his vehicle is not personal information, and therefore does not violate the Virginia Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act.”

“Fairfax County Police Department’s use of automatic license plate readers to compile vast databases of people’s movements in their vehicles is precisely the kind of intrusive practice the Virginia Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act was meant to prevent,” said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. “By compiling a history of your vehicle’s movements in local and regional databases, law enforcement can use algorithms to predict your movements and determine your friends, politics, and medical conditions.”

Modern technology can be used to enhance public safety, but only if proper policies are in place, according to the ACLU.

“As we saw on Wednesday when the Virginia State Police used an automatic license plate reader to locate the individual suspected of killing two Roanoke journalists, when used correctly modern technology can be used to make us safer,” said Gastañaga.

“Our client is not asking for the Fairfax County Police Department to stop using automatic license plate readers for active criminal investigations or for Amber or Blue Alerts. In those cases, the technology serves a valuable law enforcement purpose. He’s just asking that the Fairfax County Police Department stop using automatic license plate readers to collect everyone else’s data too.”

Neal’s Complaint and Response to Demurrer and Fairfax County’s Memorandum in Support of Demurrer can be found here.