Battered Suitcases Piled on the Sidewalk Again

Police around the country have been affixing high-tech scanners to the exterior of their patrol cars, snapping a picture of every passing license plate and automatically comparing the plates to databases of outstanding warrants, stolen cars and wanted bank robbers…when a license plate is scanned, the driver’s geographic location also is recorded and saved, along with the date and time, each of which amounts to a record or data point. Such data collection occurs regardless of whether the driver is a wanted criminal—and the vast majority are not.