A Virginia motorist is demanding his local police department stop holding onto driving records collected by automated license-plate readers.
In a lawsuit that may be the first of its kind, Harrison Neal has asked a circuit court to prohibit the Fairfax County Police Department from retaining records beyond those used for active investigations. His lawsuit was filed Monday.
Though the lawsuit bases its arguments on a state law that regulates the storage and sharing of personal information, the outcome could be seen as a national bellwether as more states and municipalities weigh the usefulness of license-plate readers as an investigative tool against individual privacy rights.
"I don't know to what extent this litigation can be a model for other states," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia, who is working on Neal's behalf. "But what I do hope is that this is an opportunity for people to learn about how these license-plate readers and other surveillance technology is being used by law-enforcement agencies."
License-plate readers have stirred controversy in Virginia and elsewhere because data produced by these machines tracks time, date, and location. Over time, cumulative records can reveal sensitive personal information, such as a person's daily whereabouts, which doctors they visit, where they attend political rallies, and so on.
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