FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - A judge has declined to throw out a lawsuit challenging the Fairfax County Police Department’s practice of storing data collected through the use of license-plate readers.
The American Civil Liberties Union claims in the lawsuit that keeping a database of such information amounts to an illegal invasion of privacy.
The ACLU says Fairfax County Circuit Judge Grace Carroll denied the police department’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit Friday.
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The decision came two days after a state trooper used a license-plate reader to identify the suspect in the slayings of WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward. The ACLU says using a plate reader that way in a criminal investigation is proper, but routinely compiling data from law-abiding Virginians and sharing it among police agencies is not.
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