In the 1958 crime thriller, “A Touch of Evil,” Charlton Heston’s character famously says, “A policeman’s job is only easy in a police state.” That’s worth remembering whenever government tries to make it too easy for law-enforcement officials to monitor the population. We all want to help police officers track criminals, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of everyone’s civil liberties.
The latest crime-fighting trend is for cities to install license-plate trackers in public places. The Orange City Council recently voted unanimously to spend $400,000 to install 43 license-plate cameras and 13 video cameras across the city. Orange has joined a growing list of Southern California cities to adopt this easy-policing model.
Police point to the cameras’ usefulness in solving crimes. But in its evaluation of such systems nationwide, the ACLU found “such instances account for a tiny fraction of license plate scans, and too many police departments are storing millions of records about innocent drivers.” Officials promise to use the data wisely, but they are governed by few rules.
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Many Americans are concerned about tech companies that share their information. This situation arguably is worse as government agencies contract with private companies to monitor the whereabouts of everyone wherever they travel. It’s open to abuse. California lawmakers had passed a law (Senate Bill 34, passed in 2015) that addresses privacy matters that are inherent in this technology.
Yet a 2020 report from the California Auditor noted the reviewed agencies “have not done all they could to respect individuals’ privacy by incorporating the requirements and concepts in SB 34 into their operations.” It found “most of the images do not relate to their criminal investigations – 99.9 percent of the 320 million images Los Angeles stores are for vehicles that were not on a hot list when the image was made.”
Furthermore, the courts have generally looked askance at policies that track everyone in the hopes of catching the occasional crook. Orange officials might be fans of Big Brother, but visitors ought to worry if the city is making policing a bit too easy.
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