VA lawmakers consider regulation of “license plate readers”

Virginia lawmakers are considering regulating the use of automatic license plate readers in the Commonwealth during next year’s general assembly session. Automatic license plate readers are cameras placed by local law enforcement agencies that capture a photo or video of a vehicle and its license plate. That photo or video along with the vehicle’s location, make and model, as well as the date and time the image was taken and then uploaded to a database.  Currently, there are no state laws regulating the use of plate readers in Virginia and officials want ensure it isn’t being misused and say there needs to be a law requiring the data to be deleted after a certain period of time, and to require law enforcement agencies to get a search warrant before reviewing data.