Shoppers at the Freehold Raceway Mall in Freehold Township, N.J. are now being watched from the moment they enter the parking lot, thanks to new license plate readers being installed on the grounds.
The license plate readers, which are the first of their kind at a mall in the Garden State according to The Asbury Park Press, have been installed at every entrance and exit of the mall and will keep records of the dates, times and locations of the vehicles entering the premises as a counterterrorism measure. The information will help law enforcement determine if the driver is on a “Be on the Lookout List” for violations from major crimes to unpaid parking tickets. The cameras won’t, however, target drivers who are speeding.
Local police support the scanners because it cuts down on the amount of manual work and time officers would have to put into looking up license plates manually.
“The Freehold Raceway Mall is one of the largest shopping malls in New Jersey,” Cynthia Scott, a spokeswoman for Monmouth Co. Sheriff Shaun Golden said in an email, according to the Asbury Park Press. “As illustrated by the Boston Marathon tragedy, infrastructure and large gatherings are attractive targets for terrorism. In the wake of that tragedy, it is imperative that intelligence continues to play a key role in protecting our nation against terrorist threats or attacks.”
The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the concept of police license plate scanners in July. In a report, the ACLU “found that not only are license plate scanners widely deployed, but few police departments place any substantial restrictions on how they can be used.”
Constitutional experts are also worried about the impact that the cameras will have.
“Privacy needs to be protected not by banning the use of (license plate) readers, but by placing limitations on how long the records are kept and what they are used for,” professor Bernard W. Bell, who teaches constitutional law and privacy issues at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, told the Asbury Park Press. “I think there is a greater understanding of law enforcement being able to intrude on your privacy for law enforcement purposes than in commercial entities intruding in your privacy.”
While the scanners at the Freehold Raceway Mall have only been up for a few days, the actual order for the cameras was issued by the state attorney general in December 2010. They were funded in part by a $285,000 state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness grant.
