Lic Plate Look Up

License plate readers help Mass. police, worry privacy groups

Fueled by federal grants, high-speed cameras that can automatically read up to 30 license plates a second and check them for violations or law enforcement alerts are scanning more streets and highways across Massachusetts this year.

Earlier this year, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security doled out $500,000 in federal highway grants to 26 police departments for automatic plate readers, which can be stationary or mounted on a cruiser on patrol.

Three local departments – Taunton, Randolph and Plymouth – were among those that won the grants.

Randolph’s camera has been working for a month and has yielded some arrests of people wanted by police.

“It’s been working very well, and it’s always out and about on a sector cruiser,” Randolph Police Chief William Pace said.

Police tout the technology as a tool to protect law-abiding motorists from other drivers without licenses, registrations or insurance. But as the devices become more prevalent, privacy advocates question what information police are collecting on drivers and how they store, share and use that data.

“The potential for abuse is pretty serious,” said Kade Crockford, privacy rights coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

The cameras are clearly in high demand. Ninety-eight police departments applied to the state’s public safety office for a grant to buy one this year.

“It’s the latest craze in technology for law enforcement,” said Nathan Maloney, spokesman for ELSAG North America, a major manufacturer of plate readers.

The cameras can capture images of any nearby license plates, even at night, and isolate the numbers and convert them into electronic data.

Police can upload databases into the systems to automatically check plate numbers for connections to anything from driving offenses to arrest warrants to ticket scofflaws to missing people alerts.

Officers typically have to check this information manually on laptop computers or ask dispatchers to look it up. In some departments, police said officers would still confirm matches found by plate readers to make sure the information is up to date.

Checking a plate manually can take a minute or so, police said. ELSAG’s plate readers can scan up to 1,800 plates a minute, according to Maloney.

Automatic plate readers also record information on the dates, times and locations of the plates they scan, according to a report from the police chiefs’ group.

Florida Department of Motor Vehicles – Getting the Right ...

Like many people, you may need to get information about an owner of another vehicle, but have nothing to go on other than a license plate number. From Jacksonville to Miami, this a common problem. Many people try asking the Florid Department of Motor Vehicles for this information, only to be turned away.

But they usually won’t get what they’re looking for from the DMV, since the DMV is not at liberty to give out private information to anyone without the proper clearance or authority. No matter your reason, if you try to get this information from the DMV, you’ll leave in defeat every time.

After you have been turned away from the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles, you may ask the police department. However, the police department is also legally prohibited from releasing information to third parties. Pointing out that your tax dollars pay their salary will not help you in your search. They cannot and will not give you the information you need.

You might have a friend who has access to this type of information, but you should not ask them to help you, because that would be asking them to break the law. What you need is a legal way to get the information you have been searching for.

The Florida DMV and police cannot help you with a search for license plate or driver information, so where can you go for help? Fortunately there is a great source at your fingertips thanks to the internet. There are private companies who maintain databases of personal information in the public domain. This information is legally obtained and distributed, and is easy for you to get with a few simple steps.

You can order a search for the license plate number that you have and discover information such as the vehicle owner’s name, his registration information, and even his driving record. Results vary per search, but many people have found the information they were looking for by turning to a private database.

Using these databases is simple. After a free preliminary search to make sure that the information you need is available, you will usually have to pay a small fee for complete access. This fee ensures that you get the records you want. Happy clients report that the fee was reasonable since finding the license plate information was worth it. A license plate number is a tiny piece of information, but it can help you unlock a mystery.

To help you contact the ownerof a car or truck registered in New York, Public Records expert Dylan Finkerton has written a simple guide to finding the owner of a Florida license plate . Conducting a reverse license plate search in Florida will give you more information about the car and driver.

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