Judge Allows L.A. Cops To Keep License Plate Reader Data Secret 108
An anonymous reader writes:
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that the Los Angeles Police Department is not required to hand over a week's worth of license plate reader data to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). He cited the potential of compromising criminal investigations and giving (un-charged) criminals the ability to determine whether or not they were being targeted by law enforcement (PDF). The ACLU and the EFF sought the data under the California Public Records Act, but the judge invoked Section 6254(f), "which protects investigatory files." ACLU attorney Peter Bibring notes, "New surveillance techniques may function better if people don't know about them, but that kind of secrecy is inconsistent with democratic policing."
Re:Are there rules for retention and resale? (Score:1, Interesting)
Do it back to them.
Install a tracker in front of your house, sell the information online and post a sign in your yard with the website url.
Move right in front of a Police station and record all their activities. Same thing.
Develop an app to track current police car location.
Build a facial photo database of cops and then build an app that automatically watches for their faces from a camera that scans crowds.
Big data goes both ways my friend. I know it pisses you off, it pisses me off. But I'd rather get technical but lawful and do it right in their faces.
Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)
Fine, have an independent oversight board review the records without making them public while keeping the details secret.
I nominate the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as the independent review boards.
Re:Good (Score:2, Interesting)
> income tax records, water usage, parking ticket record, etc should be publicly available?
Since we're playing the "Should game", income tax shouldn't be paid to the public anyway, so moot.
Water usage is monitored by a private utility company in my area, but yes.
Parking ticket record. Yes.