Plate IDs can be constitutional

According to the Illinois State Police, the automated license plate reader program employed on roadways patrolled by the ISP has “helped the agency identify witnesses or suspects in 82% of highway shooting cases this year, including all eight that resulted in death” (Daily Herald, June 23, 2024). But, the ISP is being sued by the Liberty Justice Center on behalf of two Cook County residents. They want the ALPR program to be discontinued because it violates the plaintiffs’ “search, seizure and due process rights under the 4th and 14th amendments…” .

The ALPR program runs all license plate images captured by the cameras against a database of “hot” license plates. In May of this year, they recorded 1.4 million “hits” of plates matching those in their database (undoubtedly multiple hits of the same license plate as it traveled the highway). But, they also store images of all of the plates that don’t match the “hot” list for 90 days.

Rather than abandoning this seemingly effective law enforcement tool, the ISP could modify the program to no longer store plate images that don’t result in a hit in their database. This would protect the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights while preserving the use of this tool. Scanning all license plates but only storing images of “hits” wouldn’t be any different from a cop standing at the corner of Madison and State, comparing each pedestrian's face with a mug shot in his hand. Completely constitutional.

Randy Harris

Campton Hills