By J.D. Tuccille | reason.com
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As of June 2012, the FBI’s own lawyers were “still wrestling” with privacy issues raised by the use of license plate readers—the automated cameras that can capture license plate numbers and add them to databases to track people’s movements. That’s according to internal Bureau emails obtained by the ACLU, which reveal that the FBI temporarily halted the purchase of license plate readers until privacy concerns were somehow addressed to the satisfaction of the Office of General Counsel. The delay was only expected to be temporary, though, and the FBI is believed to have resumed purchases of the systems that “enjoy tremendous field support.”
