https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr010=ng8j52spf3.app24a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1527Article 33 in HB 300 is pending final passage in the Texas Legislature. If passed in its current form, the legislation allows the federal government and the Texas Department of Public Safety to install "license plate readers" on any Texas highway.
Article 33 means you and your family stand to be tracked while on Texas roads. Additionally, you can expect a record of your movements will be created, potentially monitored, and stored by the federal government.
How?
These license plate readers are designed to take a picture of a vehicle's plate, which is then cross-referenced to a linked database. Additionally, the readers take pictures of the vehicle and its driver.
Proponents will argue the readers are looking for bad guys -- drug smugglers and other criminals -- but the cameras cannot distinguish between your SUV and a drug smuggler's SUV. The readers are technology and as with any technology, they have a tendency to make errors. In this case, the implications are traffic stops of drivers misidentified as suspects wanted for serious crimes.
The feature that permits the reader to identify characters on a license and run them through a database makes mistakes that result in running the wrong license plate number. Images of drivers can be entirely unusable if the sun is at the wrong angle. A felony traffic stop based on a misidentification could lead to police guns pointed at you and your family.
Ordinary Texans should not be part of a massive surveillance program that will entangle law abiding citizens going about their normal business.
Your state representatives need to hear from you, the people who will be affected the most. Tell state legislators to take HB 300 to a conference committee and have Article 33 stricken from this legislation.
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