From reading the article it seems the problem was not surveillance in any form but unauthorized use of police systems. I am not seeing anything new here. For decades police can be investigated for any improper searches of license plates or personal IDs, which can result in criminal referrals.

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tyre an hour ago | parent [-]

Out of curiosity, what are the non-surveillance uses for a license plate tracking service

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jameslars an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The estimated travel times displayed in major cities along highways are calculated by license plate sampling from what I understand

	▲	SoftTalker 15 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That seems overly complicated when simple speed sensors would do the job.
	▲	voxic11 39 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		So you think that is the unauthorized use that the officers were fired for?

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austin-cheney 35 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

This is called a strawman. The article was about misconduct, not technology.