Police licence-plate readers raise privacy concerns for Charlottetown driver

A Charlottetown man is raising concerns about the collectionof data by Charlottetown police after his licence plate was scanned and he receiveda ticket for an expired registration several days later.

Josh Biggleysaidlast weekaCharlottetown police officer knocked on his door to deliver a summons for an expired registrationon his car.

"The first thing that puzzled me is that in addition to the regular ticket you would get from an officer,we got a photo of our licence plate and that immediately concerned me," Biggley said.

Charlottetown police have been using automatic licence-plate readerson two of theirvehicles since last year. The readersautomatically read the plates and compare them to information on adatabase.

Fixed cameras have been operating around the city for several years.

'It feels like an invasion of privacy'

Biggley said he was aware of the surveillance cameras but didn't know about theplate readers.

"I do not have a problem with technologies being used ... but I'm certainly not in favour of an indiscriminate collection of private data," Biggley said.

"It feels like an invasion of privacy."

Biggley is asking questions about where the data is coming from, whereit's shared and how long it's stored.

Scanners make police workmore 'efficient'

According to Charlottetown police, the readerswill scan a licence plate and filter it through a police database that determines if there are any violations connected tothat vehicle.

Deputy Chief Brad MacConnellsaid thedatabase containsinformation from police reports and from the province. That includes data on vehicles with expired registrations.

"It's an efficient way to collect that data and notify police," MacConnell said.

He said all scanned plates are stored on a server for two weeks. Any vehicles found in violation are stored for three months.

MacConnell also said thedata is only shared for police purposes. "We will not use it in any way that is not appropriate for a directed police use and that is directly attributed to improving road safety or public safety."

He said police are governed by Police Act regulations and computer use policies."We're very mindful of people's privacy and respect people's privacy.... There's a number of things thatkeep us accountable."

'There has to be a line'

But Biggley said this level of data collection is going too far.

"There has to be a line in which we say we are no longer comfortable with our privacy being infringed upon in order to enforce a particular law," he said.

Biggley said he's reached out to both Charlottetown police and city hall.

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