Saint Louis Ordered To Remove Some License Plate Cameras

ST. LOUIS, MO — Workers began removing license plate readers at intersections around St. Louis yesterday after the state ordered the cameras to come down. Local authorities say the cameras make it easier to catch criminals, feeding information to police in real time, but the Missouri Department of Transportation told the city in May that it didn't have the Constitutional or statutory authority to allow the installation of cameras on state highways.

Some officials were holding out hope the General Assembly would pass legislation to create that authority, but state lawmakers failed to do so before the 2018 legislative session expired.

As of Monday, cameras at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Memorial Drive and Cass Avenue and Interstate 70 had been removed, Fox 2 St. Louis reports.

Police say the cameras have led to almost 150 arrests over the past two years, and local officials are frustrated by their removal. “We just got punched in the nose,” St. Louis City Director of Operations Todd Waelterman told KMOV News 4. “They took our tools away."

But civil libertarians say the cameras represented an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

"Automatic license plate readers have the potential to create permanent records of virtually everywhere any of us has driven, radically transforming the consequences of leaving home to pursue private life, and opening up many opportunities for abuse," the American Civil Liberties Union writes on its website. "The tracking of people’s location constitutes a significant invasion of privacy, which can reveal many things about their lives, such as what friends, doctors, protests, political events, or churches a person may visit."

Now that the cameras have come down, the city says it is evaluating its options.

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