(Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement agencies are using license plate scanners designed to track down criminals to build databases detailing the whereabouts of millions of U.S. drivers, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report released on Wednesday.
The ACLU's new report summarized the advocacy group's 2012 investigation into the way law enforcement agencies collect and store data from license plate readers, which are typically installed alongside roads or on police cars.
The license plate scanner systems quickly photograph passing cars and analyze their license numbers to check against lists of cars sought by law enforcement in ongoing investigations.
ACLU's review of documents from 38 states and Washington, D.C. found that the systems are also often used to log databases of information - photographs, plate numbers, time and location - gathered by the cameras over months or even years from all the passing cars, not just select ones.
"I think (people) fail to appreciate the tremendous scope of tracking, which can occur using license-plate readers," said Catherine Crump, the main author of the report.
"We've never before lived in a society where you couldn't go out the door without the government knowing where you went."
The report, based on documents ACLU affiliates received from local police departments through 587 freedom of information requests, gives new fodder to the growing debate over the scope of the U.S. government's surveillance.
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