INDIANAPOLIS — State lawmakers are prioritizing multiple bills in the current legislative session that seek to increase data privacy and give Hoosiers more say over how their personal information is stored.
But Republican legislators remain reluctant to enact policy around increasingly common surveillance technology such as license plate readers used by law enforcement.
The Indiana State Police have been using that technology for more than a decade — scanning a million plates a month — to find habitual traffic violators, stolen vehicles, missing people and people driving with suspended licenses.
Lawmakers have previously commended the state agency for its policy surrounding automatic license plate readers.
But Indiana has no laws regulating the technology or requiring the dozens of other Hoosier law enforcement agencies that use the cameras to follow the same rules.
A previous attempt to establish statewide standards for the readers didn’t advance in the legislature. And it doesn’t appear that lawmakers have an appetite to join the other 16 states with regulations now.
At the same time, GOP legislators have continually resisted efforts to use camera technology for highway speed violations or passing of school buses.
Although police contend that the license plate readers are a valuable tool for investigators, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana raised concerns that the information collected can be stored indefinitely in databases and shared without restrictions.
There also aren’t laws in place to prevent data from being used in ways that could infringe on Hoosiers’ privacy.
“This is technology that collects data about all of us, and there’s very little transparency, there’s very little accountability, and that has concerns for us in multiple ways,” said Jane Henegar, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana.
“This information can be collected, it can be pulled across wide swaths, geographically. It can be stored and kept for long periods of time. It can be used for reasons beyond its initial justification.”
HOW READERS WORK
The high-speed cameras used by ISP take pictures of license plates and turn them into searchable data.
While the agency previously used vehicle-mounted cameras, ISP Maj. Bryan Harper, who commands the Special Investigations Division, said state police stopped using those more than a year ago.
“It’s easier for us to have five cameras placed strategically than to have five cameras on vehicles that might have the day off or might be down for maintenance,” he said.
“It’s much more efficient to put those in areas where they can be employed the full day, the full week, rather than being down for some type of maintenance or other reasons.”
State police now contract with California-based Vigilant Solutions, a subsidiary of Motorola Solutions. The new system — up and running since August — has so far cost upwards of $250,000, according to the Indiana Department of Administration.
Currently, state police have 47 cameras employed, Harper said. Most of those are in or around Indianapolis, but others are located elsewhere in the state.
Harper emphasized that the license plate readers “are really nothing more than cameras” that are set up to scan license plates, not individuals.
Cameras are set up in public domains along roadways and affixed to traffic poles.
“We don’t really have anything to hide when it comes to this. This technology is out there. It’s not a secret,” Harper told Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Officers also can’t review live camera footage, he said. State police internal rules require an officer to have reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred before an investigator can log into the license plate system with a plate query.
Harper said the cloud-based storage system is strongly encrypted to prevent information breaches. Data can be shared with other law enforcement agencies, though, “as long as they’re providing us reasonable suspicion of a crime.”
There were more than 1.1 million license plate reads from Dec. 13 to Jan. 11, according to state police. During that time, plate hits led to 44 apprehensions — almost all of which were for stolen vehicles or warrant arrests.
In the last three months, ISP said it also has made three large seizures of money or drugs, thanks in part to the license plate readers system, Harper said.
Police generally check the license plate information against a hot list of people wanted on criminal arrest warrants or those with suspended licenses. Harper said they also look for people reported kidnapped or missing.
The lists are compiled by cross-referencing records from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles with criminal databases.
INDIANA LACKS GUIDELINES
Other law enforcement agencies around the state are adopting the technology, too, including in Columbus, Gary, Jeffersonville, Muncie, West Lafayette and more than a dozen jurisdictions in central Indiana.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has in recent years purchased dozens of license plate cameras from Atlanta-based Flock Safety, for example. Those are now installed around the metro area.
Still, each agency crafts its own policies for license plate readers. Harper said the ISP policy — which dates to 2015 — is similar to most others around Indiana.
Specifically, ISP’s operating procedure requires license plate image data to be retained for 30 days before being purged.
That extremely short window can be prohibitive to investigators, Harper said, “but the Indiana State Police want to make sure that we are covering both ends — we understand people’s civil liberties, and we also understand the need to mitigate or apprehend suspects.”
The policy differs from what’s previously been in place at IMPD, which still uses mobile license plate readers that are attached to marked police vehicles. The department said data is now stored for up to 30 days — a change from up to six months in previous years.
After adding 200 license plate readers last fall as part of a high-tech plan to help cut down on crime, IMPD now has more than 250 readers in operation, including more than 200 stationary cameras inside and outside of downtown Indianapolis, and more than a dozen mobile license plate readers attached to patrol cars.
Harper maintained that local law enforcement agencies across Indiana are actively meeting to discuss policy. ISP is also in the process of updating its own guidelines.
“For the most part, everybody’s pretty much in agreement that we’ve got to make sure we’re handling this the right way, or it will go away as fast as it came,” Harper said, referring to the license plate reader technology.
“That would be a complete disservice to our victims and our role as law enforcement, to mitigate crime.”
