Latest / Commentary - TJ Meadows / Using Opioid Settlement Money for ALPRs is Questionable

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Using Opioid Settlement Money for ALPRs is Questionable · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: Some West Virginia counties and municipalities have used opioid settlement
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  Speaker 1: money to buy automated license plate readers, including flock cameras.
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  Speaker 1: Mother Jones reports that more than a dozen law enforcement
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  Speaker 1: agencies nationwide have used opioid money for the technology. Here
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  Speaker 1: in West Virginia, the list includes Monongalia and Ohio counties, Weirton, Granville,
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  Speaker 1: and Martinsburg. along with Randolph and Upshur counties. That raises
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  Speaker 1: a few questions. First, is this really the best use
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  Speaker 1: of money intended to combat the opioid epidemic? And second,
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  Speaker 1: are we certain how this powerful surveillance technology can constitutionally
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  Speaker 1: be used? I've made no secret of my concerns about
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  Speaker 1: flock cameras and ALPRs. Used during an emergency? That's one thing.
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  Speaker 1: If a child is kidnapped and police are searching for
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  Speaker 1: a specific vehicle, using every lawful tool available makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: Routine surveillance is very different. Using ALPR databases to reconstruct
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  Speaker 1: where people have traveled, retaining information on innocent motorists, or
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  Speaker 1: putting someone on a hot list without adequate safeguards ought
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  Speaker 1: to concern us all. And the Supreme Court's recent Chantry
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  Speaker 1: decision adds another wrinkle. The court held that police conducted
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  Speaker 1: a Fourth Amendment search when they obtained a person's Google
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  Speaker 1: location history. Its reasoning should warn government against assuming our
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  Speaker 1: movements automatically lose constitutional protection simply because technology collects them
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  Speaker 1: in public. So why not exercise some restraint? Until West
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  Speaker 1: Virginia establishes uniform rules governing ALPR searches, data retention, access,
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  Speaker 1: and constitutional safeguards, counties and cities should consider buying these
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  Speaker 1: systems with something other than opioid settlement dollars. There's already
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  Speaker 1: a legitimate question about whether money intended to fight addiction
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  Speaker 1: should be buying surveillance cameras at all. Spend millions today
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  Speaker 1: only to have courts restrict their use tomorrow and taxpayers
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  Speaker 1: could be left with expensive technology They cannot fully use.
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  Speaker 1: That's money down the drain. Money that could have been
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  Speaker 1: spent fighting addiction. And that helps nobody.