Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) is a hot topic again. This time it’s not local law enforcement but a government agency raising ALPR concerns. New documents released by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), under a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), show the agency has been operating a massive national license plate reader program with major civil liberties concerns. The recovery industry has been a responsible user of ALPR … [Read more...]
ALPR (Automatic License Plate Readers) Putting Clients at Risk?
Across the automobile finance and recovery industries people will tell you that automatic license plate reader (ALPR) technology has been a valuable recovery method. As one BellesLink customer says, "Anything that helps me locate a vehicle is good. ALPR is one more tool in my toolbox." But ALPR is not without downsides. The costs of operating and optimizing ALPR systems makes profitability a challenge (improbable?) for recovery professionals who, for years, have faced stagnant or declining … [Read more...]
Automatic License Plate Recognition – 7 Important Questions for the Repossession Industry
Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), also know as automatic number plate recognition, is a hot topic in the automobile repossession industry. Over the next posts, we’ll take a close look at ALPR from the perspective of clients, forwarders and repossessors. Like all advances, there's nothing wrong with ALPR itself, it's just a technology—and a pretty cool one. But it has raised a lot of questions and concerns over privacy and civil liberties. So much so that lobbyists and law makers across … [Read more...]
License Plate Recognition and Industry Council Highlights NARS 2014
Howdy! I recently spoke at the North American Repossessors Summit (NARS) and I couldn’t be more excited about what I see happening in the automobile repossession industry. The next generation of auto repossessors and skip tracers were in full force at NARS 2014. There were young people everywhere, the energy was great, there was real momentum towards co-opetition, Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) was one of the hot topics. A New Generation Over the years I’ve been worried that … [Read more...]