Palo Alto police begin using license-plate reader

Source: Palo Alto Weekly

The Palo Alto Police department began using an automated license-plate reader mounted atop a patrol car on Tuesday, July 23, said police Lt. Zach Perron.

The device is designed to help police find criminals and stolen vehicles quickly and efficiently, but watchdogs fear that the price to civil liberties is too high.

The readers take in license information from all of the vehicles in the vicinity, not just the suspect vehicle. And that information can be fed to other law-enforcement agencies, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which published a report on the issue in July.

... Since the system is new throughout the county, Palo Alto police are currently working with other county law-enforcement agencies to write a mutual policy that is consistent with state and federal law, Perron said.

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