Politics & Government
Rockville Police: Treatment of Personal Data From License-Plate Scanners Must Change
Police car-mounted scanners can capture any license plate that passes within its view. At issue is how long license plate data is stored.
The City of Rockville is changing the way city police handle data collected from license plate readers, mounted scanners that capture the license plate for any vehicle that passes within its view—regardless of whether the vehicle has committed a violation.
During its regular meeting Monday, Rockville City Council approved Chief Terry Treschuk’s recommendation to store the data for a shorter amount of time.
Instead of dumping the information into the Montgomery County’s system, where the policy is to store it forever, police would send the data directly to a state repository, where it would be kept for a year and automatically deleted.
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Three city police cruisers are equipped with license plate scanners. There are 22 in Montgomery County.
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