For years, police departments across the state have employed the use of squad car-mounted license plate scanners to gather and log data from Minnesota cars. The American Civil Liberties Union has spoken out against this practice, arguing that such technology is a gross invasion of privacy. Under the MN open records law, anyone may request this information and gain access to data recording the locations of any car captured by the scanners.
Now, Melissa Hill, a local Occupy MN activist has responded by doing her own tracking, starting a blog which records the position of law enforcement vehicles caught by these same trackers: trackthepolice.tumblr.com. Hill wrote to the Star Tribune, “If they want to watch us, we’ll watch them back!” According to Hill’s blog, the reverse tracking is slated to launch today. Hill is asking the general public to participate by submitting their own data to the blog.
The blog will display the license plates and locations of various government-owned vehicles across Minneapolis. All information was provided via the Minneapolis Police Department in accordance with the open records law. The Minneapolis Police Department retains their records for a year, after which they are deleted. The St. Paul Police Department keeps their records for only 14 days, and the MN State Trooper for only 48 hours. The data is reportedly used for a number of reasons, including tracking stolen vehicles and capturing images of criminal behavior.
Related Source:
The Star Tribune
Track the Police blog
