“It spawns off another big issue of how the police department can find out what kinds of affiliations you have, who your doctor is, just based on the places you go,” Lansing resident Charles Hoffmeyer said.

Through a grant, Meridian Township police were able to begin using automatic license plate readers in 2009. Since then, many local law enforcement agencies have invested in the technology, including the East Lansing Police Department and the MSU Police Department, Lansing police Public Information Officer Robert Merritt said.

As cars are driving down the road, the plate reader is able to pick up the license plate through a series of high-speed photographs. Instead of having to manually enter the license plate number as officers do now, the readers are able to quickly retrieve information, such as if the car is under police investigation or belongs to a missing person. The data is then entered into the National Crime Information Center.

“It is already established within the United States that police officers, as they are driving down the road, can type in your plate,” Merritt said. “We don’t have to have a reason, we can type in a thousand plates. All this is allowing (is) that the officers don’t have to physically (enter it) in with their fingers.”

But the controversy does not lie with the efficiency of this tool, it comes down to where the data goes, and for how long. Citizens worry that when the plate is read, and there is a time and place attached, that officers are imposing on personal information.

“My issue is really with the collection of the data itself and the retention of the data,” Hoffmeyer said. “Right now, they’re keeping the information for a year, and I would like to see it closer to 30 days. … They can go back and see who was in that area, but they’re not keeping enough information so that they can see where I’ve been for the last year.”

MSU police have invested in three of the devices, but have not deployed them, MSU spokesman Jason Cody said. They are still working out the kinks, developing an addition policy on the data retention. Likewise, Lansing police have installed three readers, but have not started using them. They plan to have a policy in place and use them in September, Merritt said.

“It’s just another tool for law enforcement, like any tool it can be abused if it falls in the wrong hands,” Merritt said. “The public doesn’t know too much about them. People think that when you read a plate it’s going to tell you how many children you have, how many bank loans you have. No, your personal information isn’t coming up. It’s used for law enforcement.”