The ACLU and EFF have won a ruling in the California Supreme Court that the massive databases California law enforcement collect by simply recording the license plates of every car that passes by a given spot cannot be held indefinitely or in secret just because they might some day be useful in some currently unidentified criminal investigation.
The organizations had asked for the release of a week’s worth of Automated License Plate Reader data from the LAPD and LASD, to demonstrate to the public the extensiveness of what’s being collected. The law enforcement agencies refused, saying that the data might include bits that could, someday, be used by them — that would exempt the data from public record requests laws in California as “records of law enforcement investigations.”
EFF and the ACLU SoCal argued the ruling was tantamount to saying all drivers in Los Angeles are under criminal investigation at all times. The ruling would also have set a dangerous precedent, allowing law enforcement agencies to withhold from the public all kinds of information gathered on innocent Californians merely by claiming it was collected for investigative purposes.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that the “investigative purposes” excuse is invalid , and told a lower court to examine how the data could be released without violating any personal privacy.
Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU Win Court Ruling That Police Can’t Keep License Plate Data Secret
San Francisco, California—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU won a decision by the California Supreme Court that the license plate data of millions of law-abiding drivers, collected indiscriminately by police across the state, are not “investigative records” that law…
Just 'cuz you can doesn't mean you should.