Senate hearing on license-plate readers spotlights testimony of woman wrongly jailed

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on automated license-plate readers and related surveillance technologies drew criticism from senators and suffering testimony from one witness who said the systems can produce harms when relied on incorrectly.

Sen. Josh Holly opened the session by noting that invited corporate witnesses from companies including Flock Safety and others had not appeared. "I think we need to hear from them about what it is their networks do," he said on the program reading. The hearing also included testimony from Lindseay Isaacs of Florida, who recounted a wrongful arrest she said stemmed from license-plate reader data. "I was placed in solitary confinement for approximately 3 and 1/2 days," Isaacs testified, describing what she said were 13 days detained and a period in maximum-security housing before the error was corrected.

The program's coverage framed the hearing around two concerns: the technical capabilities and data practices of private vendors of plate-reader systems, and the consequences for individuals when law-enforcement reliance on that data is faulty. Senators on both sides of the aisle, the program reported, urged a fuller explanation from the companies and pressed for transparency about how the data are collected, retained and used.