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Mass surveillance technology just received a big boost in the commonwealth.
The Criminal Justice Services Board on Thursday approved the use of American Rescue Plan Act grants to purchase automatic license plate readers for various localities — a move that’s drawn ire from some legislators who say it went against direction from the statehouse.
“It seems to me like this was a direct contradiction to the decisions that the General Assembly already made to reject these license plate readers,” Sen. Creigh Deeds, an ex-officio board member, told The Virginian-Pilot on Friday.
The Senate and House of Delegates both killed bills this year that would have expanded the use of license plate readers in Virginia amid concerns that the technology infringes on privacy rights and could easily be abused.
“It seems to me that when the signal is sent from the General Assembly that this is not appropriate, it’s somewhat hard to believe that this board would then approve these grants in the face of legislative opposition,” Deeds said.
The board is the approving authority for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and is tasked with approving most of the grants the department awards to localities, state agencies and private nonprofit organizations. Many of its members are law enforcement officers.
Mary Biggs, a board member, said Friday she understood there were some concerns with expanding the technology. But she explained she voted to approve the funds because she believes it will help with public safety.
“Localities want them, and they have been able to be used to actually catch people who have committed a crime,” she said, adding the gunman who killed Alison Parker was located using a license plate reader.
Parker was a television reporter in Roanoke who was killed on-air while on assignment in 2015.
Biggs, however, said she hopes legislators will put guardrails in place during the next legislative session to help prevent abuses.
“I am very aware of the privacy issues and I want the General Assembly to look at regulations,” she said.
Craig Branch, the board’s chair, could not be reached for comment Friday. Minutes from the board meeting were also unavailable.
Deeds is not the only legislator raising concerns.
Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, wrote on Twitter this week that the board should not bypass the will of the General Assembly.
“We rejected these license plate readers on overwhelming bipartisan votes in both chambers,” he wrote. “They are bad for privacy and a step too far for Virginians.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, and Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, submitted a joint editorial this week to the Cardinal News voicing their opposition. They wrote that, if approved by the board, the grants would provide $8.1 million for mass surveillance technology.
“(Automatic license plate readers) would utilize Virginians’ vehicles to gather massive amounts of data on where those vehicles go, and they would put all the data they gather on a nationwide network for anyone in law enforcement to access,” they wrote.
The senators further pointed to a 2012 study from the American Civil Liberties Union that found less than 1% of the license plates photographed by automated license plate readers are linked to criminal activity.
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More than a dozen organizations, including Justice Forward Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, and the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers wrote a joint letter to the General Assembly in February urging them to oppose an expansion of the technology.
The groups wrote that anyone who had read George Orwell’s novel “1984″ should be able to understand why mass surveillance technology is troubling.
“We oppose this mass surveillance tool because of the serious and significant implications on our privacy, the increased unregulated and unmonitored use of technology by law enforcement and the potential this technology has to become just another driver of mass incarceration and disparate policing of Black and Brown people,” the letter states.
On Friday, Shawn Weneta, policy strategist for the ACLU of Virginia, said he believes the board’s vote was out of step with what most Virginians wanted. He said many residents shared concerns with their legislators during the legislative session.
Weneta said even those who would like to see the technology expanded should be concerned about the lack of regulations for its use in Virginia.
“This is rife for abuse,” he said. “The legislature needs to act quickly to strictly regulate the license plate readers and to put in guardrails.”
Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com