LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A hidden surveillance network is rapidly spreading across California and the US, fueled by the car repossession industry and raising significant privacy concerns.
“Nobody likes the repo man, you know?” Mario admits, a repossession agent who spoke to Eyewitness News anonymously.
Mario is driving a black Prius through a shopping mall parking lot. Attached to his car’s hood are four high-speed license plate reading cameras. These cameras are constantly scanning, capturing license plate data and snapping thousands of photos of vehicles in every direction as he searches for cars to repossess.
“Everyone wants to know what we’re doing. People are always concerned … what are the cameras for?” Mario explains, highlighting the public’s growing unease with this technology.
License Plate Reader (LPR) cameras have transformed the car repossession business. They allow “repo men” to significantly increase the number of vehicles seized from borrowers who have defaulted on their loans.
Andy De Palma, owner of Expert Recovery in La Crescenta, recalls the pre-LPR era: “Six years ago I was rolling around in a truck with a Thomas Guide and no laptop.” Now, technology has drastically changed the landscape.
However, these cameras don’t just capture data from cars targeted for repossession. They record information from every vehicle scanned. This vast amount of data is highly valuable and is collected by private companies like DRN and MVTrac. These companies equip repossession vehicles and others with LPR cameras, feeding the collected data into private databases. This information is then sold without the knowledge or consent of the vehicle owners.
“They are selling the data to insurers, to banks and to law enforcement and federal agencies,” warns privacy expert Jennifer Lynch, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “We have really seen an explosion of the collection of license plate data by private companies in the past few years.”
Lynch and other privacy advocates acknowledge the lack of privacy expectation in public spaces. However, they are concerned that technology is advancing faster than legal protections, creating a potential for misuse and overreach.
“These private companies have amassed databases of over a billion records and that includes not just the license plate, but the time, the date and the location that plate was collected,” Lynch emphasizes, pointing to the depth and breadth of the data being accumulated.
LPR cameras are capable of capturing up to 1600 license plates per hour. This creates a detailed digital record of our movements – where we drive, who we might be visiting, and when these interactions occur.
“Perhaps it’s a place where the person goes to pray, maybe it’s a gay bar, maybe it’s a political group, maybe it’s a doctor’s office,” Lynch elaborates, illustrating the sensitive nature of the locations revealed by this data.
License plate cameras are not new to law enforcement agencies. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the LAPD each gather over a million license plate reads every week. For law enforcement, LPR technology can be a powerful tool, as demonstrated by its use in apprehending the accused killer in the USC student case.
“On the public safety side, those databases are controlled,” explains retired Marine Lt. Colonel and ABC7 intelligence expert Hal Kempfer. “But on the private sector side, it’s a business.” This distinction highlights the different levels of oversight and regulation between public and private use of LPR data.
Kempfer believes legal intervention is likely needed to address the ambiguities surrounding private sector LPR data collection and usage. “On the private sector side, it’s not really clear how long they can keep that information. How can they share that information? How can they sell that information?” he questions, pointing to the lack of clear guidelines.
Two major players in the LPR data business, MVTrac and DRN, were both founded by individuals with backgrounds in the car repossession industry.
“So, we deploy camera systems to repossession agencies, towing operators, police cars, security for apartment complex, airports,” says Scott Jackson of MVTrac, outlining the diverse applications of their technology.
MVTrac’s database now exceeds one billion license plate records nationwide. Each scan includes a color photograph, which can sometimes capture images of people in addition to the license plate.
“There’s a GPS latitude and longitude stamped to it, so that we know where and when that picture was taken,” Jackson explains, underscoring the precise location and time-stamping of each data point.
When Eyewitness News requested MVTrac to run license plates of their employees, the system identified one employee’s SUV on Wiley Canyon Road in Santa Clarita and another employee’s vehicle in two Burbank locations, demonstrating the system’s tracking capabilities.
For repossession agents, LPR cameras provide real-time alerts when a scanned vehicle is flagged for repossession.
“It sounds like a Vegas slot machine,” Mario describes the alert system, emphasizing the efficiency LPR brings to accessing private parking areas like malls and apartment complexes. Once a target vehicle is identified, a repo truck is dispatched.
Andy De Palma defends the repossession industry’s role, stating, “A lot of people think repo guys are the bad guys, but we’re actually helping to catch the bad guys. People will intentionally go to the dealership, buy a car with no intention of paying for it and this system helps to catch those people. It does a great service.”
However, the reality remains that even those who are current on their car payments are having their license plates scanned and their vehicle locations recorded. There is no way to opt out of this widespread tracking. Anyone driving a car with a license plate will inevitably be included in these private databases.
“It’s going to keep growing exponentially,” Scott Jackson predicts, asserting the legality of photographing anything in public view under First Amendment rights.
Eyewitness News further tested MVTrac by running license plates of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s city SUV and Councilman Tom LaBonge’s city sedan. Garcetti’s vehicle was scanned and recorded in three LA locations, while LaBonge’s sedan was spotted on the 2 Freeway in Glendale, highlighting the pervasive reach of the surveillance.
Jackson clarifies that MVTrac currently sells “actionable data” to specific sectors including repossessors, towing companies, banks, law enforcement, insurance, and finance companies. However, future plans include providing direct database access to companies like TLO, owned by credit-reporting giant Transunion.
“Transunion, as a credit-reporting agency of course, already has our entire financial history at its fingertips. So when you combine location information with financial information, it’s just a huge database of records on Americans,” warns privacy advocate Lynch, expressing concern about the potential for comprehensive data profiling.
DRN already sells its data to TLO, who then provides database access to law enforcement, law firms, process servers, and private investigators. These entities are legally required to have a “permissible use” for the data under the Driver’s Policy Protection Act.
Critics worry about the potential for misuse of this sensitive location data, including stalking.
“Maybe someone has a restraining order on someone, because they pose a threat to them,” intelligence expert Hal Kempfer points out. “Well, here they’re able to get information off this database where they’re literally able to surveil them.”
“I think it could be very easy to abuse the information. Right now, we’re really just having to trust the companies to tell us how they share the information,” Lynch states, emphasizing the lack of transparency and accountability. “I think if I were a domestic violence victim or I had a restraining order against somebody, I would be very concerned about the collection of this data.”
Legislative efforts in California to regulate the sharing and selling of license plate data have failed in recent years. Private companies like DRN and MVTrac, along with law enforcement groups like the L.A. Police Protective League and the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, actively opposed these bills.
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