I spent 20 years as a police officer, commanded the Investigative Services Division, and worked a federal drug task force alongside the FBI and DEA. So let me say the part my fellow privacy skeptics often leave out: a license plate reader is a genuinely useful tool.
When a suspect fled the Brown University shooting last December, plate-reader technology helped find him fast. These cameras recover stolen cars, flag vehicles tied to open cases, and feed the AMBER and Silver alerts that bring missing children and vulnerable seniors home. I have run investigations that would have closed faster with that kind of lead, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
That is exactly why I want you to pay attention to what Rhode Island is doing with them. The tool is not the problem. The absence of rules is…