Missouri's governor curbs licence plate readers over privacy fears
An executive order calls for 30-day deletion, bans vendors from selling Missouri data and forbids linking the cameras to facial recognition.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe has signed an executive order directing strict safeguards for automated licence plate readers, citing concerns about the use and misuse of the cameras and in particular Flock Safety's data-sharing network, StateScoop reported.
The order tells the Department of Public Safety to set statewide safeguards for state and local police, to prevent misuse of Missourians' location data, while the legislature works on a permanent law. Misuse will trigger disciplinary proceedings or criminal referral, with mandatory reports for possible revocation of officers' licences.
Voluntary standards for now
Until a law passes, agencies are encouraged to commit, where existing contracts allow, to standards that include deleting most plate and vehicle data within 30 days; banning vendors from selling, sharing or commercialising data captured in Missouri; limiting use to criminal justice and lifesaving purposes; penalising misuse; and prohibiting the integration of facial recognition with plate readers.
"The government should not be building a permanent record of where law-abiding Missourians go, who they visit, or how they live their daily lives," Kehoe said.
A national argument
Plate readers spread quickly because they are cheap and useful for finding stolen cars and suspects. But networked systems that share data across thousands of agencies turn a local tool into a national location database, which is why states of all political leanings are now writing rules. Retention limits and bans on resale are the core of most proposals; Missouri's bar on combining plate data with facial recognition goes further than many.
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