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DAMIANDOVARGANES—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Long Beach Police Department Lt. Chris Morgan, administrator of the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) program, describes the capabilities of his patrol's plate reader at the city's Emergency Operations Center. ByTamiAbdollah TheAssociatedPress LONGBEACH Foryears,po- lice nationwide have used patrol car-mounted scan- ners to automatically pho- tograph and log the where- abouts of peoples' cars, up- loading the images into databases they've used to identify suspects in crimes from theft to murder. Nowadays, they are also increasingly buying access to expansive databases run by private companies whose repo men and tow-truck drivers photograph license plates of vehicles every day. Civil libertarians and lawmakers are raising con- cerns about the latest prac- tice, arguing that there are few, if any, protections against abuse and that the private databases go back years at a time when agen- cies are limiting how long such information is stored. Some argue police should get a warrant from a judge to access the databases, much as they would if they wanted to obtain emails. "The public is under- standably concerned about how this information is go- ing to be used," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Re- search Forum, but for po- lice, the databases, just like surveillance cameras, are an important investi- gative tool. Privacydebate License plate scans have been at the forefront of a privacy debate in recent years. The license plate reader companies say their scans are useless without access to motor vehicle department rolls — which police have. They say lawmakers should focus on strengthening data access laws, rather than eliminating police tools. The largest firm, Liver- more-based Vigilant Solu- tions, has filed a lawsuit or actively lobbied in at least 22 states and the District of Columbia for its technology, said Todd Hodnett, founder of Digital Recognition Net- work, which provides the data it collects to law en- forcement through its sis- ter company Vigilant. He said as of June that roughly 30,000 law enforce- ment officers nationwide subscribe to their LEARN database. Hodnett said when he tells legislators that the data his company gathers is protected, "I can't tell you how many times I've heard legislators say this sounds like a solution in search of a problem." The plate readers can col- lect 1,600 plates an hour. Vigilant has collected scans since 2007 and has more than 3 billion license plates, growing at a rate of 100 mil- lion a month from every major metro area. There are roughly 254 million reg- istered vehicles in the U.S. Law enforcement agen- cies have acknowledged privacy concerns over how long they store scans — which includes a photo of the vehicle, its plate, and a GPS and time marker — and have voluntarily insti- tuted policies to limit that storage. The Long Beach police have used the license plate technology since 2005 and in December signed on with Vigilant. The depart- ment retains its own scans for two years, primarily be- cause of server space and funding, like many other agencies. "If somebody has more (scans), why would we not look at it?" Lt. Chris Mor- gan said. Retention policies Departments with re- tention policies, however, are able to still use private databases, which keep their scans forever, calling up in- formation they wouldn't have access to otherwise. It is up to departments to ac- tivate any limits in the pri- vate database to prevent employee access. "There needs to be a bal- ance," said Morgan, who calls the technology the de- partment's No. 1, go-to in- vestigative tool. "It obvi- ously adds value. We know there's value there. We know that it's something we don't want to go away. Does it need to be regu- lated? Maybe." When state governments have tried to ban private li- cense plate scan collection and use, for example in Utah, they've faced a law- suit arguing that the law violated the First Amend- ment by preventing pri- vate companies from tak- ing photos of publicly vis- ible license plates. They ultimately amended their law to only bar law en- forcement from using the privately collected scans. Civil libertarians say they are concerned that po- lice can use the database to establish a detailed pattern about a person's behaviors, habits and lifestyle, such as what mosque they frequent, strip club or gun store they shop at. Requiring a warrant to access such databases "pro- vides a little bit of over- sight," said Kade Crockford, director of the technology for liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts. The roots of the license plate scanning business lie in the repossession world. DRN provides license-plate snapping cameras to tow trucks and repossession workers. Banks and insur- ance companies have used it to track down tens of thousands of vehicles that are no longer being paid for. Limited free search Vigilant this year stopped offering a limited free search to thousands of law enforcement agencies in hopes that they'll sign on for a paid version. Vig- ilant won't disclose client numbers or the value of its law enforcement contracts. A review by The Associated Press, however, of nearly a dozen publicly available contracts indicates a value well into the millions. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the nation's largest sheriff's de- partment, is participating. For smaller departments, which can't afford to build up their own databases, the sheer amount of data found in the Vigilant system can be a game changer. The Fairfield, Connect- icut, police department had few clues last year af- ter a man wearing a hoodie grabbed a pregnant wom- an's purse at a gas station and jumped into a car that dragged her along the road. Though the department has its own data collected from a few cameras, noth- ing came up. Police were able to use the Vigilant database to identify a car spotted less than a quarter mile from the crime scene. Officers were sent over, and an hour later pulled over a man wearing a hoodie and a woman, both of whom con- fessed to the crime. "We've had tremendous success with it," said Dep- uty Chief Chris Lyddy. "Usu- ally I first go to the private data if I'm looking for some- body." 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