Kyle could turn parking lots, traffic jams into police checkpoints

KYLE -- The Kyle City Council voted Tuesday night to allow for the installation of license plate readers on city police vehicles.

According to an earlier story done by KXAN regarding the Travis County Sheriff's Department's consideration of the same devices, the technology allows police to scan license plates while passing cars and while stationary, which in turn sends the information to a database to check for outstanding warrants. (See above for a training video that demonstrates how the license plate readers operate.)

It's a relatively new technology, and one that has only been implemented by one city in the Austin metro area so far (Round Rock, which, as a side note, suspended its red light camera program effective Jan. 1).

What often happens with these arrangements involving expensive, potentially controversial technology is that a contractor (e.g. the manufacturer of the license plate readers) will attempt to make a splash at first in order to gauge public opinion in a market area. Sometimes the contractors will practically give the equipment away in hopes an agency will begin a trial run or "pilot program" at little or no cost -- but with a promise that the mechanisms will generate revenue in the form of increased delinquent fine payments.

In the City of Kyle's case, according a KXAN story that aired Tuesday evening, the company will receive a 25 percent cut per warrant fine collected. And, as expected, the reporter was provided with all sorts of information on unpaid warrants in the City of Kyle and how much revenue could be collected.

We agree that empowering our law enforcement officers and agents of the court to do their jobs is a critical role of government. Still, this is the stuff of Orwellian fiction -- especially given that many Travis County residents have unpaid fines of which they may be unaware (addresses change, checks do get lost in the mail, debit card transactions sometimes do not complete, etc.). These devices could render any parking lot or traffic snarl into a de facto checkpoint.

The contractor, Vigilant Solutions, also develops facial recognition technology. Ponder the warrant enforcement possibilities there.

And, as always, let us know what you think. Is this an intrusion of privacy or a necessary law enforcement tool?


UPDATE (1/26/16): The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) compiled some excellent information on this development here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/no-cost-license-plate-readers-are-turning-texas-police-mobile-debt-collectors-and