There has been a lot of press coverage
in the past couple of weeks about the Department of Homeland Security posting a
solicitation for contract proposals regarding access to a national license
plate reader database—and DHS’s decision, once mainstream news outlets began
covering the story, to withdraw the solicitation. That has led to a lot of
triumphant talk about how the agency shelved the plans in the face of
widespread public outcry and bad press.
There’s just one problem with this narrative: it’s
completely wrong, beginning to end.
First of all, contrary to widespread understanding,
DHS’ solicitation for bids had nothing to do with asking a contractor to build
a nationwide license plate tracking database. Such a database already exists. The solicitation was more
than likely merely a procedural necessity towards the goal of obtaining large
numbers of agency subscriptions to said database, so that ICE agents across the
country could dip into it at will, as many have
been doing for years already. There was never a plan to “build” a plate
database. A database almost exactly like the one DHS describes is a current
fact. It is operated by a private corporation called Vigilant Solutions,
contains nearly two billion records of our movements, and grows by nearly 100
million records per month. As I explain in greater detail here, DHS likely just wanted
broader access to tap it.
Second, contrary to the impression that many seem to
have that DHS does not use license plate readers, some of the agency’s
sub-organizations have been using the technology for years now. Customs, Border
Patrol, for example, operates
license plate readers at every land border crossing, a fact that has been
somewhat widely reported. You have to read beyond headlines like “Department of
Homeland Security cancels national license-plate tracking plan” to understand
that DHS already makes substantial use of license plate readers, both by
deploying its own and accessing
privately held databases containing billions of records.
It seems as if many people are under the mistaken
impression that we dodged a surveillance-bullet when DHS withdrew this
solicitation. We didn’t. A national plate tracking database exists, run by
Vigilant Solutions, and it is widely used by law enforcement nationwide. The
company is currently aggressively
defending in court its ability to track anyone it wants, however it wants.
If you’d like to see which agencies have access to its rapidly growing
database, you can click here
and scroll through the drop down menu. Vigilant has helpfully provided a list
for all to peruse.
Unfortunately, lots of misleading information about
this issue is spreading like wildfire, leading some activists to claim a very
premature victory. But the only thing truly different today is that, thanks to
widespread press attention, more Americans than ever are aware of the threat
mass license plate tracking poses to our privacy on the open road. What we need
now is to find out the extent to which DHS already contracts with Vigilant
Solutions, tapping into its massive plate tracking database. I’m sure the first
journalist to score those documents will be well rewarded, and I’m eager to see
the results.
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