Vehicle Identification Is Not Driver Identification

What a camera record captures

Automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems are designed around vehicles. A typical record includes an image of the rear of a vehicle, the plate characters the software read, a date and time, and the camera’s location. Some systems also let users search by vehicle features such as color or body type.

Whether an image shows anything about the people inside depends on the camera angle, lighting, distance, window tint and image quality. Many ALPR images are taken from behind the vehicle, where the driver isn’t visible at all.

The gap between vehicle and driver

A plate read answers one question: was a vehicle with this plate here at this time? It doesn’t answer a different question that often matters more in a criminal case: who was driving it?

Vehicles are shared. A car may be driven by a family member, a roommate, a coworker, a friend, or someone who borrowed or rented it. Registration shows who owns a vehicle, not who was behind the wheel at a given moment.

Vehicle identification is not driver identification.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that due process requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged. Where identity is an element, that standard applies to who committed the act, not just which car was nearby.

How identity is usually argued

When a case relies on an ALPR record, prosecutors usually try to connect a specific person to the vehicle with other evidence. Depending on the case, that might include:

• Other video or photographs that show the driver
• Witness identification
• Phone location records or other digital evidence
• Statements made to police
• Evidence about who usually drives or had access to the vehicle

Each of these has its own rules and its own weaknesses. How strong the link is between the person and the vehicle is often a central question, and one a defense attorney will look at closely.

Questions to raise with your attorney

• Does any image show the driver, or only the vehicle?
• What evidence, other than the camera, connects me to the vehicle at that time?
• Who else had access to the vehicle?
• Was the plate read correct, and is the original image available? See how plate misreads happen.
• Did police rely on the camera record to stop, search or arrest anyone? See traffic stops based on an ALPR alert.

For a full list, see questions to ask a defense attorney about ALPR evidence.