Postal Inspectors Reported to Be Collecting License Plate Info, Agents Deny Broad Surveillance

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

The Truth About Cars has followed the use of license plate recognition and storage technology by local law enforcement agencies, a practice that has raised alarms from civil liberties activists because of constitutional concerns over broad surveillance and the ability to reconstruct one’s movements from license plate data. Now it appears that United States Postal Inspection Service, the USPS’ own law enforcement agency has also, at least at one post office in Colorado, been collecting similar data from drivers. Though the device had apparently been operating for at least a few months, within an hour of Chris Halsne, of Denver’s KDVR television station, inquiring from the postal inspectors about a Golden, Colorado post office that had a camera positioned to record drivers’ faces and license plates, triggered as they left the post office property, the in-ground camera was removed.

A postal customer first noticed the camera, hidden in a utility box, back in November, and it appears to have been active through the busy Christmas mailing season and into January. Management at the post office where the camera was discovered told KDVR that they were not aware of the camera and that it wasn’t part of the building’s normal security system.

When asked by KDVR, the Postal Inspection Service would not discuss their reasons for surveilling Denver postal customers, but acknowledged their use of cameras. Without saying so specifically, a statement from U.S. Postal Inspector Pamela Durkee implied that the camera discovered at the Denver post office was part of some kind of ongoing investigation, not constitutionally dubious random spying on Americans. “(We) do not engage in routine or random surveillance. Cameras are deployed for law enforcement or security purposes, which may include the security of our facilities, the safety of our customers and employees, or for criminal investigations. Employees of the Postal Inspection Service are sworn to uphold the United States Constitution, including protecting the privacy of the American public.”

The Postal Inspection Service is one of the oldest federal law enforcement agencies in the United States and it has a pretty good record of protecting both those who carry our mail and our privacy. To protect postal employees and the stamps, money, postal money orders and valuables they handle, most post offices in the United States have at least as many security cameras installed as the average bank does. Those cameras, though, are as visible as their purpose is.

Not long ago, I was mailing a package and while standing in line noticed a sign saying “Refrain From Cellphone Use While Being Serviced”. Struck by the double-entendre, I stepped forward to take a photo of the sign with my phone. A woman standing behind me started to freak out about her privacy and at first I didn’t know what she was talking about and then realized she thought I was taking a “selfie”, with her in the background.

A little annoyed, I told her that I wasn’t taking her picture but that I happen to write and take photographs professionally and that nobody has any expectation of privacy in a public place. Then I counted off the number of security cameras recording us at that very moment, at least six that I could see, which didn’t seem to bother her at all. On the way out of the building, I counted another five cameras. At least at that particular post office location, your every movement is recorded from even before you open the door.

As I said, you have no expectation of privacy in public places. Still, we live in a country that long ago decided that the government has no business doing broad surveillance of the public. Criminal investigations, not to mention those involving national security, are undoubtedly sensitive, but at a time when Americans already have concerns about broad surveillance of electronic communications by the National Security Agency, it would probably behoove the postal inspectors to be a little more forthcoming with the purpose of their camera in Denver. Ripping out a camera when it becomes a news story and a boilerplate statement intoning on the moral integrity of postal inspectors doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in that integrity.


Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

More by Ronnie Schreiber

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  • JLGOLDEN JLGOLDEN on Mar 15, 2015

    I'm not sure what the fuss is about, related to the cameras at this post office. I figure that my Impala and I both get starring roles in somebody's surveillance log. No doubt, I'm on several people's cameras per day, and it's just a part of life: I pass my neighbor's homes while walking the dogs or driving by...and their driveway cams catch a glimpse of me. Yikes! What did they get to see...me squinting in the sunlight and adjusting my glasses? Traffic cams follow my commute to work. I'm sure they regularly zoom in close, to see if I am picking my nose or texting. I get photo opportunities again as I pull into our secure parking garage at work, and again as I walk across the sky bridge to my building, and another as I pass the bank and ATM near my office, and once more as I use the elevators. I don't think anything of it.

  • DenverMike DenverMike on Mar 15, 2015

    It's just the Feds wanting to know exactly who the enemy is and how he works. They're fully expecting an uprising of US citizens and it wouldn't be hard to pick out the generals & majors and take them out with drone strikes. Might have already happened. But there's growing anger and citizens uniting, so the fat bastards in DC have to feel the eyes upon them. And the noose tightening around their necks. Yeah they're nervous as hell. It's only a matter of time, and likely at the next big recession, while DC is partying like it's 1999.

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