Community Corner
ACLU: Data Storage from License Plate Readers Cause for Concern
Constitutional watchdog group is lobbying legislators to require police departments to delete the data after a set period.
The American Civil Liberties Union says 10 Connecticut police departments' retention of data obtained from electronic license plate readers needs to be regulated by lawmakers.
While the ACLU sees value in the plate readers, which Orange police and other departments employ to identify unregistered and stolen cars, it says the indefinite retention of that information presents a privacy issue and could lead to possible misue.
The Hartford Courant reports that the ACLU wants the Legislature to prohibit police departments from keeping the data more than two weeks unless it is part of an active investigation. The Orange Police Department is one of 10 departments that share a database where the information is stored. At least 15 other police departments in southwestern Connecticut are in the process of setting up a similar database, the Courant reports.
