The Drug Enforcement Administration has been busy implementing a nationwide license plate reader and real-time tracking program, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.
The program was designed to fight drug trafficking near the U.S.-Mexico border – to assist in the seizure of cars, money and other drug trafficking assets, reported The Wall Street Journal.
However, the program has been quickly expanded across the nation, and the DEA previously suggested that “other sources” would even be able to contribute data to the database, the ACLU said.
While the documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request were heavily redacted and thus their usefulness limited, the group was able to get a clearer picture of the program’s expansion.[…]
The records “offer documentation that this program is a major DEA initiative that has the potential to track our movements around the country,” the ACLU continued. “With its jurisdiction and its finances, the federal government is uniquely positioned to create a centralized repository of all drivers’ movements across the country – and the DEA seems to be moving toward doing just that. If license plate readers continue to proliferate without restriction and the DEA holds license plate reader data for extended periods of time, the agency will soon possess a detailed and invasive depiction of our lives.”
http://www.hngn.com/articles/64135/20150127/dea-expands-vehicle-tracking-surveillance-using-license-plate-readers.htm