>Willy-nilly search for relatives, lovers, love-interests, rivals, etc. would potentially be a fireable offence --like HIPAA violations. There is no technical reason there could not be technical controls preventing abuses.

So you're fine with 1984-ish type stuff as long as it's only used to enforce the will of the state and never used by the agents of the state for their own purposes?

So long as the state represents the will of the people where will of the people is a democratic process that respects the constitution.

Each use of the ALPR should have behind it an actual defensible case.