California, License Plate Trackers High -Tech Cameras, Technology to Find Vehicles Associated With Crime

California lawmakers are considering whether this technology has limitations, in order to protect privacy. They’re often mounted on law enforcement vehicles and street poles and police used to catch criminals. High -tech cameras zero in on the license plates of every car that passes, taking up the 2000 copies per minute.

California lawmakers are considering whether this technology has limitations, in order to protect privacy. They’re often mounted on law enforcement vehicles and street poles and police used to catch criminals. High -tech cameras zero in on the license plates of every car that passes, taking up the 2000 copies per minute.

Photos instantly sent the national database, log the exact location of the vehicle, along with the date and time it was there. More than 70 percent of the nation's police departments are using this technology to find vehicles associated with crime.

"If a vehicle comes into the area, it is immediately recognized,” said Capt. Ed Palmer of the University of Southern California's Department of Public Safety.

There are 62 cameras that take pictures of each car on the Los Angeles campus. Last year, the LA police chased and arrested a man after a car reported stolen on the USC campus camera took a picture of your plate.

"It's a force multiplier," said Palmer. “You cannot be everywhere at once. Consequently, it allows us to gain insight into almost every vehicle that comes through here."

But now, private companies build their databases , and the use of these cameras - as well as cruising the streets and parking lots , and to share the billions of hits data not only law enforcement, but who wants to pay , including private investigators , insurance companies and lenders are willing to take back transport measures.

"They can keep track of the whole country through these data bases," said California State Senator Jerry Hill. Hill wants to regulate technology. He is pushing a new state law (SB 893) that would keep the license plate cameras on private property and to prohibit public institutions share their data.