The Fort Wayne Police Department has obtained two (2) license plate readers which will be in use sometime in May. These devices read and store license plate data.
This technology will be used to assist police officers in locating stolen cars. It can also be used to find people with warrants or those who are driving while suspended. According to this article from WANE.COM, the two scanners will be able to record and store between 12,000 and 13,000 license plate numbers PER SHIFT. These license plates will be stored in a database. The concern is how the information will be stored and used.
Everoyone will be under surveillance with this technology, even law-abiding citizens who aren't suspected of crimes. This seems to be too great of an intrusion into our constitutional protections.
Gregory A. Miller, a Fort Wayne Criminal Defense Lawyer, can be reached at (260) 833-7249.
