ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police are getting more tools that will capture personal information even if someone did nothing wrong -- license plate scanners.
Many people were ending up in a massive database, and the city fleet is slated to get more of the crime-fighting tool.
They're one of authorities' latest tools to catch crooks.
The license plate scanners, which are attached to some police vehicles, are just about as controversial as they are effective.
"I think if you're an honest citizen, you know, then it's not so bad," resident Noreen Hubener said.
The scanners capture every plate in their line of sight, and the images are stamped with the date, time and GPS location, helping track down stolen cars and wanted criminals, for example.
All of the data, regardless of innocence or guilt, ends up in a database.
OPD already has three scanners. Adding one more means they can scan up to 2,000 plates in one shift.
Residents' chances of ending up in that database just got a whole lot greater.
Last year, 9 Investigates discovered, OPD had more than 470,000 scans in its database.
Officials couldn't give an updated number Thursday but said they're purging the scans every 30 days.
They said info is not public, because it includes data from other law enforcement databases.
WFTV
