Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Verge

Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US

By Russell Brandom@russellbrandom Jan 26, 2018, 8:04am EST

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. (1) The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians.

The source of the data is not named in the contract, but an ICE representative said the data came from Vigilant Solutions, the leading network for license plate recognition data. Like most other law enforcement agencies, ICE uses information obtained from license plate readers as one tool in support of its investigations, spokesperson Dani Bennett said in a statement. ICE is not seeking to build a license plate reader database, and will not collect nor contribute any data to a national public or private database through this contract. (Vigilant did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

While it collects few photos itself, Vigilant Solutions has amassed a database of more than 2 billion license plate photos by ingesting data from partners like vehicle repossession agencies (2) and other private groups. Vigilant also partners with local law enforcement agencies, (3) often collecting even more data from camera-equipped police cars. The result is a massive vehicle-tracking network generating as many as 100 million sightings per month, each tagged with a date, time, and GPS coordinates of the sighting.

ICE agents would be able to query that database in two ways. A historical search would turn up every place a given license plate has been spotted in the last five years, a detailed record of the targets movements. That data could be used to find a given subjects residence or even identify associates if a given car is regularly spotted in a specific parking lot.

(1) https://www.fbo.gov/index?sopportunity&modeform&id5629706f5736d22bd174b11965f5ac4c&tabcore&tabmodelist&

(2) http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/private_companies_know_where_youve_been_thanks_to_license_plate_cameras.html

(3) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/no-cost-license-plate-readers-are-turning-texas-police-mobile-debt-collectors-and

Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/26/16932350/ice-immigration-customs-license-plate-recognition-contract-vigilant-solutions

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I don't know how reliable The Verge is, but The Hill has picked up the story too:

ICE to gain access to database that tracks license plates
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/370855-ice-to-gain-access-to-database-for-tracking-license-plates

BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/26/18 10:05 AM EST

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"Dear {registered owner}
At 2:30 a.m. on January 27, 2018, your vehicle was seen in the parking lot of a bar that caters to known homosexuals. Were you aware that it was there? Please contact us at your convenience. Thank you, ICE."

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ICE Will Soon Be Tracking License Plates Across The U.S.
https://jalopnik.com/ice-will-soon-be-tracking-license-plates-across-the-u-s-1822447264

Ryan Felton
55 minutes ago