Officials claim they are now able to address the concerns raised by privacy advocates, who point out that the warrantless tracking violates civil liberties and has potential for abuse for personal reasons.
“These restrictions will provide essential privacy and civil liberty protections, while enhancing our agents’ and officers’ ability to locate and apprehend suspects who could pose a threat to national security and public safety,” DHS spokeswoman Marsha Catron wrote in the public statement seeking bids.
The department is not looking to build a database, but hopes to purchase access to an existing commercial system for use by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). License plate tracking abilities vary from company to company, with some only capturing the plates, and others capturing images of the people inside the car.
DHS intends to be able to access past location data as well as set up alerts to let them know when specific license plate numbers have been spotted.
The access to such a system would provide ICE officers with tracking info for nearly all adult drivers in the United States, going back years.
To combat concerns, the department has stated that they intend to limit how far back the officers can search for records to correspond with the statute of limitations on the crime they are investigating. There is no statute of limitations on civil immigration cases, therefore the department is promising to adopt a five-year limit.
The department also intends to perform random audits on the searches to attempt to prevent misuse.
The Washington Post reported that ICE queries will not be shared with other agencies, unless they are working on a joint investigation.
Privacy advocates and those concerned with civil liberties are calling these measures meaningless as the department’s plans are vague and they openly admit that they would be adding people to alert lists without a warrant.
