[IP] More on License Plate Scanners
------ Forwarded Message
From: Bruce Schneier <schneier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 10:36:13 -0600
To: <EPIC_IDOF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [EPIC_IDOF] More on License Plate Scanners
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/03/09/enforcer.camera.ap/index.html
Tax collector employs technology to snare deadbeats
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- Sam Byers heard a commotion outside his
house, but by the time he got to the window his Ford Explorer was gone.
City marshals, armed with a new tool that photographs auto license plates
and instantly matches them against a tax scofflaw database, had towed
Byers' car right out of his driveway.
"That's like kidnapping your car," Byers, a 58-year-old truck driver said
as he stood, leaning on the crutches he got after a foot operation. Byers
was in a long line of people outside the New Haven tax collector's office
who were waiting to make delinquent payments so they could get their
vehicles back.
Cash-strapped New Haven is a pioneer in using the so-called BootFinder
system. The objective: snare people who haven't paid car taxes.
(Connecticut is among a handful of states where local governments levy
annual fees, typically a few hundred dollars per vehicle, based on the
value of residents' automobiles.)
New Haven officials are overjoyed at the results. They've towed about 1,800
cars and recovered more than $1 million in delinquent taxes since the
program began in September, including from people whose cars they removed
from a Wal-Mart parking lot.
But privacy advocates are concerned.
To them, BootFinder, originally developed to help police departments
identify stolen cars, represents yet another ominous step in government
surveillance of the citizenry.
The BootFinder system was first introduced for catching tax laggards by
Arlington County, Virginia.. So far, New Haven is the only other
municipality using it, though Connecticut's largest city, Bridgeport, is
among those considering a purchase.
The system is comprised of an infrared camera that rapidly scans license
plates and, connected to a laptop computer in the New Haven system, scours
a list of car tax delinquents. Previously, New Haven officials had to rely
on mailed notices and phone calls to try to collect overdue car taxes.
The car tax collection rate, at 80 percent before BootFinder, has now risen
to 95 percent, said C.J. Cuticello, New Haven's tax collector.
"I think the results are fantastic," he said. "We're going to continue it
until we exhaust every vehicle in New Haven."
Arlington County has had similar success, reaping about $100,000 in unpaid
car taxes and parking tickets since employing BootFinder despite not towing
tax delinquents' cars. Its treasurer, Frank O'Leary, says the county is
expanding the program this month to go after delinquent business and meals
taxes owed by restaurant delivery companies.
"We're expanding to include all the items we can think of," he said.
That is precisely what alarms privacy advocates such as Cedric Laurant,
policy counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy
Information Center.
"It's a very slippery slope into which the authorities may be tempted to
go," Laurant said. "You could use that technology to enforce any type of
law that requires people to file their taxes."
Privacy advocates fear BootFinder could lend itself to "function creep", in
which a technology intended for one purpose evolves into other uses.
Indeed, the president of the company that developed BootFinder, Andy
Bucholz of Alexandria, Virginia.-based G2 Tactics, says he is in talks that
he hopes will one day lead to a BootFinder-like system getting access to
the National Crime Information Center database.
Bucholz said the talks are addressing privacy and security.
Such issues were paramount to a number of states that pulled out of a
federally funded database program launched in 2002 called the Multistate
Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange -- "Matrix" for short -- that was
compiling billions of pieces of information on potential criminal suspects.
Laurant complained, additionally, that New Haven's towing regimen is
disproportionate punishment for relatively small tax bills.
Kathy Martone was doing her dishes one night last week when the city came
to get her Plymouth Neon, for which she owed $85 in taxes.
"I didn't know till I went to walk my dog," Martone said.
Motorists who have had their vehicles seized say they are given little
warning and must miss work to get their car back.
New Haven officials say, however, that delinquent taxpayers are given five
notices and warnings before their vehicles are seized.
In Bridgeport, Mayor John Fabrizi got a demonstration of BootFinder last
week and said that within five minutes he had identified three cars whose
owners owed a total of $900 in taxes.
"I was very impressed," Fabrizi said. "I feel we're going to go with the
program."
The city's tax collector, Bob Tetreault, says it is currently owed more
than $20 million in car taxes and its collection rate is below 70 percent,
"which is just embarrassing."
The BootFinder remains a work in progress.
O'Leary of Arlington County said it sometimes fails to work when lighting
conditions are variable due to cloudy weather. But he predicts big things
for the technology.
"I compare it to buying a plane from the Wright brothers 100 years ago,"
O'Leary said. "It's a very clever device. This thing will fly. Give it a
little time."
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