Tag Readers, the Governments Old, Little Known, Spy – Are You the Next Felon, for Driving?

By Elizabeth Nelson

It seems that Kansas City is having an issue with their License Plate

Readers, yet again.  Back in 2012 the Kansas City Police tried to justify it by saying, “it's a valuable tool when it comes to fighting crime.


The readers helped locate a homicide suspect in the Kansas City area.”  However, the ACLU and Kansas’ citizens feel very differently about it, "Automatic license plate readers make it possible for police to track our location whenever we drive our cars and to store that information forever," said Doug Bonney, legal director for the area ACLU chapter. "The American people have a right to know whether our police departments are using these tools in a limited and responsible manner, or whether they are keeping records of our movements for months or years for no good reason."

You think this is just in Kansas City, think again. Watchdog.org decided to do an experiment in their home city of Alexandria, VA and see what their city did.

In April, my fellow Watchdog.org reporter Kathryn Watson had the tenacity to ask police in Alexandria, Va., what information they had collected on her through the use of automatic license plate readers. What she found was nothing short of creepy. Law enforcement records tracked her vehicle home, around Old Town Alexandria and even on her way to Bible study.

My curiosity piqued, I set out to do the same, only to run into a brick wall tossed up by law enforcement.

I have no way of knowing when and where police in Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park or Prairie Village have recorded my movements with automatic license plate readers, because all three departments cite an exemption to the Kansas Open Records Act.

What exemption is that, you ask? The one explicitly reserved for “criminal investigation records.”

I was more than a little alarmed the first time this blockade was tossed in my face. Sure, I have a few speeding tickets on my record, but as far as I know I haven’t committed any criminal activity in the aforementioned municipalities. Wes Jordan, Prairie Village chief of police, John Knoll, Overland Park assistant city attorney, and MacKenzie Harvison, Lenexa deputy city attorney, assured me I wasn’t the focus of any investigation.

I’m still waiting on clarification from the Olathe Police Department, but I expect a similar response.

With that being the case, I’m left with only one alternative.

These law enforcement agencies consider everyone to be a potential criminal — you just may not have committed the crime yet.

“It seems to infer that,” said Holly Weatherford, advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas.

For the record, state law defines criminal investigation records as any police evidence or information “compiled in the process of preventing, detecting or investigating violations of criminal law.”

“To me, you know, it seems like a core principle in our society that government doesn’t invade peoples’ privacy, they don’t collect information about citizens and our activities just in case they do something wrong,” Weatherford said. “And refusing to disclose your personal activities or information to you claiming it’s a part of a criminal investigation seems to fly in the face of that principle.”

My colleague in Virginia was able to acquire her information because of the state’s Government Data Collection and Dissemination Act, which instructs public entities to fulfill open records requests for personal information like this. Kansas has no such directive.

“Kansas has one of the most restrictive open records laws in the country, so we’re paying attention and we’re really interested when people are asking for information and being denied and for what reason, we’re really trying to understand how the different government agencies in Kansas use those exemptions,” Weatherford added. “This is one I haven’t heard yet.”

For what it’s worth, Harvison said while Lenexa wouldn’t give me any actual information because of the cited exemption, they don’t yet have any record of my plates in the system. Read more Watchdog.org

I guess I’m a dying breed, as I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, trust them and consider them God’s brilliant child, until they open their mouth and prove me wrong.

Much to my chagrin, I learned that they have these scanners nationwide, including my state of Florida. So, big brother is indeed watching our butts. Well, more to the point, our car’s butt. The ACLU admits that they are fighting the National “Database” that is being collected and held by Vigilant Solutions. This doesn’t really shock any of us, does it?  Remember, Obama is all for Americans being found guilty before proven innocent; this is the “new America,” the “transformed” Obamanation.

Because Gitmo is “inhumane” to Muslims and Foreign terrorists that haven't done anything but hate America and our Allies, and we all fully understand Obama sympathizes with them and their Caliphate, he came up with his own prison, “prolonged detention,” better known as Indefinite imprisonment, NDAA, where he 'd prefer to detain Americans for “future crimes that have not been committed.”

What, you’re trying to put a lib-spin on it and say this is for “people accused of terrorist acts?” Oh, but remember, the Tea Party and Republicans have already been called Terrorists and worse, Obama calls Christians, Veterans, and Anti-Abortionists Terrorists. Do you have the thousands of dollars, and the time, it will take to defend yourself in court to free yourself and clear your name, after they brand you a “terrorist,” and throw you in some obscure FEMA camp, because you stand by your faith and disagree with what Obama is doing to this Country? Yes, your tag is watched, your blogs, email, twitter, and Facebook accounts have all been flagged.  Don’t worry, hopefully your computer will crash and all “terrorist” leaning records will be lost.