BOSTON – Massachusetts has suspended using a controversial license plate surveillance system after discovering a glitch that caused inaccurate data to become recorded in excess of five years, according to a report obtained by The Boston Globe.
The inaccuracies were found inside a network of mounted, fixed high-speed cameras installed by Massachusetts State Police that took photos of license plates of passing vehicles.
The state's Executive Office of Public Security and safety issued a memo Wednesday having said that the problem was discovered Nov. 12 by state police officials reviewing data collected.
The officials said the dates and time stamps for some of the entries were inaccurate.
The data collected included location, time and date and was utilized for criminal investigations and in some cases to locate suspects instantly, without obtaining warrants or court orders.
“As with facial recognition and other newer types of surveillance, there's too many risks that something will go wrong if this is left entirely towards the executive branch from the government to run in secret,” said Kade Crockford, director from the Technology for Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. \”We have to the reason is that technologies are not perfect, and they're not going to be perfect.\”
State officials declined to directly answer questions or provide more details.
