CHARLESTON, S.C. (CN) — Automated license plate readers are at the center of controversy this week in South Carolina, with state police denying that officers abuse the collected data to harass innocent people.
Law enforcement officials say the state’s license plate database is an important policing tool, aiding search efforts during Amber Alerts and helping detectives solve drive-by shootings.
But privacy advocates say the devices invade the privacy of law-abiding motorists and are too easily abused by authorities who wish to curtail an individual’s civil rights.
Automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, are high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems that can photograph hundreds of plates in a minute. The devices, typically mounted on street poles, highway overpasses and police squad cars, can store a plate number for later review or immediately alert officers when a number is recorded, such as for stolen vehicles.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday against the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and SLED's chief, Mark Keel, targets a more than decade-old database the agency built to store license plate photos. The information, which includes the time, date and location of the image, is collected by local law enforcement agencies that operate cameras across the state.
At least 99 agencies and more than 2,000 individuals have access to the searchable database, which contains hundreds of millions of images, the complaint states. The database is cross-referenced against several “hot lists” to identify stolen or suspect vehicles, as well as vehicles with expired registration tags or lapsed insurance.
Per agency policy, images are retained for three years before being deleted.
Lawmakers have previously authorized SLED to serve as the central repository for fingerprint, DNA and arrest information, the complaint states, but the General Assembly never approved the “mass surveillance” of South Carolinians traveling on state roads.
“No statute contemplates, regulates, constrains or places sufficient legislative guardrails on any aspect of the agency’s ALPR program,” according to the complaint.
The agency further never held public hearings or issued reports before creating its database policies, the lawsuit alleges.
Confidential databases can be vulnerable to security breaches or abused by officers to stalk or harass innocent residents. An investigation by the Associated Press in 2016 revealed more than 300 law enforcement officers across the country had been fired, suspended or resigned in the prior three years for misusing police databases, including ALPR databases.
In 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, discovered more than 100 misconfigured cameras in Florida, Louisiana and California were broadcasting live on the internet for anyone to view.
The South Carolina Public Interest Foundation and Greenville resident John Sloan are plaintiffs in the suit, which is being litigated by The Policing Project, a legal organization based out of New York University’s School of Law.
The plaintiffs previously petitioned the South Carolina Supreme Court to hear the case, but the high court denied that petition in December.
A spokeswoman for SLED declined to comment on the suit, but the agency said in a response to the petition the database is solely used to support its public safety mission.
“Despite petitioners’ suggestions, there is no officer or agent who interprets the collected data to determine a person’s ‘familial, political, professional, religious and sexual associations,’” the agency wrote. “The information is only accessed to assist law enforcement in the context of ongoing criminal investigations, missing person cases or ‘amber alert’ situations.”
Response to the cameras have been mixed in the Palmetto State.
Last year, North Charleston officials approved a budget that included $2.5 million to add and install 745 surveillance cameras and 34 automatic license plate readers. The decision came as the city was grappling with an explosion in gun violence.
Some local activist groups voiced opposition to increased surveillance in the state’s third largest city, arguing the cameras support discriminatory policing practices, but a number of anti-gun violence activists praised the decision, according to The Post and Courier.
Ernestine Brown, whose son was fatally shot in February 2021, said murders went unsolved in Liberty Hill, a historic Black neighborhood, because witnesses refused to cooperate with police. More cameras meant police needed less eyewitnesses, she told the newspaper.
North Charleston Deputy Police Chief Ken Hagge said Thursday the city has so far installed only a few of its 34 automatic license plate readers.
The police department will store its own data rather than relying on the state agency. Hagge said he was still crafting the department’s policy for license plate readers, but the photos would only be stored for 90 days – not three years.
License plate readers can be used to investigate pretty much every crime – shootings, car thefts and kidnappings, the deputy chief said. Previously, police officers would spend hours searching neighborhoods for a suspect vehicle, but the cameras automate that process, saving time and resources.
Hagge agreed the tool could be used in a malicious way, but that’s true about any tool.
“The question is do we have things in place so if that happens, we catch it immediately and take care of it,” he said.
SLED has not filed a response to the suit yet.
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