Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Efforts to remove automated license plate readers from Florida roadways may not be the best idea because the technology can be one of the most valuable tools law enforcement has ever received.
Florida recently moved to revoke permits for license plate readers on state highways, citing concerns about privacy, misuse and the rapid expansion of surveillance technology.
Ward said the decision deserves a closer look, arguing that eliminating the cameras could make it more difficult for law enforcement to identify suspects, locate wanted people and recover stolen vehicles.
“I’ve been involved in the criminal justice system in one role or another: law enforcement officer, prosecutor, state attorney, public defender, criminal defense attorney,” Ward said. “And it’s probably one of the biggest law enforcement tools that’s ever come about. It’s really impacted the ability to investigate crimes and hold people accountable.”
License plate readers can be useful even in relatively minor traffic cases.
“If you just look at what these license plate readers do, starting at the low end, you know, just people driving while their licenses are revoked for various reasons,” Ward said.
The technology can identify people who have accumulated enough driving violations to have their licenses revoked, as well as people who are driving under the influence, without valid licenses or with expired licenses.
“On the low end, the cameras pick them up and they get stopped, and sometimes they get arrested. Sometimes they get notices to appear,” Ward said.
But Ward emphasized that the technology can become much more significant when it helps identify people wanted for serious crimes.
“Somebody has a warrant, and we’ll move right up to a warrant for whatever it may be: theft, petty theft, grand theft, murder, rape, robbery, auto theft, burglary, larceny,” he said.
The information can also help identify people wanted outside Monroe County.
“Not only from our county, but from other counties and other counties in the United States,” Ward said. “That’ll show up.”
License plate readers can also assist authorities in tracking sexual offenders, child abductors and people involved in missing-person cases.
“People that are child molesters, that are sexual offenders, people that abduct children and take them across state lines — you get a jump on that if you’re able to put this information out there all over the country for situations like that,” Ward said. “Kidnappings, and let’s talk about Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts and Interpol warrants. Terrorists, you can only imagine.”
Ward even raised the September 11 attacks as an example of how vehicle-tracking technology could potentially assist investigators.
“I don’t think we had license plate readers right after the 9/11 incident, but I think there could have been a lot more tracking done on those terrorists,” he said. “With the world we’re in today, this tool is very, very useful.”
Despite those benefits, a number of people are worried about the privacy concerns surrounding the technology.
“I understand people’s sense of privacy and what have you,” Ward said. “And that’s always a problem when safety and privacy collide. If we’re all concerned about our privacy, and we’re all concerned about the fact that these license plate readers have put our privacy in jeopardy, well, let’s do the whole thing here now. There’s tolls all up and down the roads here in the state of Florida, and you go through that toll booth or that toll, whatever it’s called now, i takes your picture as you’re going through, and then it takes a picture of your plate as you go through it. So let’s get rid of that. Let’s go back to, hey, look, throw a quarter into a basket or something.”
Ward argued that toll systems collect and distribute vehicle information while also generating substantial revenue.
“That generates a lot of money for the state of Florida,” he said.
He also questioned whether privacy concerns should apply equally to red-light cameras, school bus cameras and cameras used in school zones.
“What about the information on red-light cameras?” Ward asked. “Just go to the intersection up there in Florida City. Right? There is another batch of private information going out there.”
There are also cameras on school buses and in school zones.
Ward asked, “So what are we going to do here? Are we going to say this one’s okay and that one’s not okay?”
Could the distinction may come down to who benefits financially from the technology?
Ward suggested, “It appears to me the one that’s making money for the state or for the school system is the ones we’re not going to touch. Don’t worry about that privacy there. Let’s concern ourselves with the privacy over here.”
The debate also involves concerns about law enforcement officers potentially misusing access to license plate information.
Ward said those concerns are legitimate, but he argued that officers who misuse the systems should be prosecuted and removed from law enforcement rather than eliminating the technology itself.
He said his office has worked with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on cases involving officers who improperly accessed or distributed license plate information.
“We prosecute these people, and I want them out of law enforcement,” Ward said.
Ward pointed to a deputy who is serving prison time after providing information about license plates belonging to undercover vehicles.
He said officers are warned about the consequences of abusing law enforcement databases.
“They’re told right up front when they take these tests and these examinations that violation of these policies could lead to your termination and your arrest and prosecution,” Ward said.
Another case involving the alleged misuse of law enforcement information is scheduled for sentencing next month, and prosecutors are seeking prison time.
He said the case involved what he described as “a terrible invasion” of a young woman’s privacy by a law enforcement officer.
Ward said accountability should be part of the solution to concerns over license plate readers.
“If there’s other law enforcement agencies in the country that don’t do that, well, shame on them,” Ward said.
Ward also criticized what he called a “knee-jerk reaction” to the cameras.
“Just to come out and say you want all the cameras torn out of the rightaways that FDOT controls is, I think, a knee-jerk reaction,” Ward said.
Instead, he said lawmakers should work with law enforcement agencies to establish rules that protect privacy while allowing officers to use the technology to investigate crimes.
“I think that probably there needs to be some collaboration between the Legislature,” Ward said.
The debate comes as Florida has moved to remove automated license plate readers from state highway rights-of-way. FDOT said the decision was prompted by concerns including data privacy, alleged misuse and the rapid increase in deployments.
Ward’s position is that the technology should not be eliminated simply because there are legitimate concerns about how information can be handled.
Instead, he said, safeguards and accountability should be strengthened while preserving a tool he believes has significantly improved the ability of law enforcement to investigate crimes and protect the public