Issue link: https://securitytechnologyexecutive.epubxp.com/i/656764
46 SECURITY TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE • February/March 2016 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com VIDEO SURVEILLANCE "What the Real-Time Crime Centers of St. Louis and other cities are demonstrating is that in the world of video surveillance, mass deployment is the key." Supposedly, this results in a "Big Broth- er " situation where law enforcement is capable of knowing where any motorist is and where they are going at any time. It is true that ALPR is a powerful technol- ogy; that is why it has been so effective in combatting crime and terrorism during the course of its existence. However, there are three basic points about ALPR and its relationship to privacy that public officials should understand: • United States Case Law has already established that the Fourth Amend- ment's search and seizure provisions do not extend to a license plate in a pub- lic place. Put simply, there is nothing unconstitutional about law enforcement officers photographing license plates in public areas, or even recording the date, time, and location the photograph was taken. One of the best examples of this is the case of U.S. vs. Ellison from 2006. As to ALPR's ability to compare license plate numbers to law enforcement databases for active wants or warrants, this is nothing new—police have been able to do so manually for decades. The fact that ALPR can do this faster and in greater numbers does not alter the fact that it is a well-established prerogative of law enforcement. • The Police couldn't be Big Brother even if they wanted to. What so many pri- vacy advocates fail to do in this debate is consider the logic of their position. Yes, it is true that an ALPR database can store license plate capture data for thousands, millions, or even billions of vehicles going back weeks, months, or years. But such a system has the defects of its virtues; in other words, it pro- duces far more data than an organiza- tion of human beings would ever have the time or manpower to make use of. The only practical application for such a database is in researching the history of a vehicle that there is already reason to suspect as being used in criminal activ- ity. In short, if you are not breaking any laws, the police are not going to bother to look up any data on you. They don't have the time. • Terrorists aren't concerned with privacy issues. The fact is we live in a danger- ous time. Our nation, and indeed our world, lives under constant threat of terrorist violence from very powerful organizations such as the Islamic State. In the 21 st Century, such organizations have found even more nefarious ways of penetrating our borders than they ever had previously; namely, they use the Internet, particularly social media, to recruit more followers to their cause. As noted above, these are often what are known as "lone wolf " operators; people who appear seemingly out of nowhere and act completely alone in perpetrat- ing heinous acts of violence. What this means is that the enemy could be anywhere. It also means that those who would harm us will use any technologi- cal weapon they can find against us. We must be prepared to do the same. ALPR- based video analytics can be one of the most effective tools in this fight. We hesitate to use it at our own peril. The Key is Mass Deployment What the Real-Time Crime Centers of St. Louis and other cities are demonstrating is that in the world of video surveillance, mass deployment is the key. The more cameras there are, the more complete the coverage is. In the world of ALPR- based video analytics, this is especially true, as multiple camera placements not only increase the chances of capturing an offending vehicle, but also give authori- ties the ability to flag such a vehicle and follow its track if it attempts to escape. Beyond this, however, mass deployment also allows for wide collaborative net- works of data sharing, whether between cities, between city and state law enforce- ment, between state and Federal agencies, or among any other combination of agen- cies one could conceive. The wider this network is, the harder it is for criminals and terrorists to move about undetected. The harder it is for them, the safer the rest of us are. ■ About the Author: John Chigos is the visionary founder and CEO of PlateSmart Technologies, a leading industry developer of video analytics security technolog y. His goal was to develop a camera- agnostic license plate capture solution that incorporates a data analytics backbone for both security/ law enforcement and business intelligence uses. Since 9/11, Chigos has established himself as an expert in LPR and video analytics in the areas of terrorism and counter-terrorism.