Around New England

Cops Are Recording License Plates of All Cars That Cross Cape Cod Canal

March 29, 2019

A New Bedford man charged with drug trafficking is challenging a Superior Court judge’s ruling that automatic license plate readers recording all cars that go over the Bourne Bridge and Sagamore Bridge to or from Cape Cod are constitutional.

Jason McCarthy’s car was on a Hit List generated by police investigating him in connection with drug dealing, and when they got an alert from the system on February 22, police pulled over McCarthy, eventually leading to his arrest, according to The Cape Cod Times.

The trial court judge found the defendant’s lawyer’s constitutional argument “novel,” but decided that the license plate readers, which take photos of the license plate of every car that goes over each bridge, pass constitutional muster, even though everyone who drives on or off the Cape must go over one of the two bridges.

The judge said the defendant might have a point if the Hot Alert went off every time his car went by a license-plate-reader camera at points all over the state, but because only the two bridges were monitored, there isn’t a “looming specter” of surveillance, the judge wrote, according to The Cape Cod Times.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court will decide whether to take the case.

All images of license plates taken on the bridges are stored in a database in Chelsea and are supposed to be kept for only one year, the trial court judge said in his ruling.