The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at one time planned to take photographs of license plates on cars near gun shows, but the program was later abandoned.
The license surveillance program would have been used for gun-trafficking investigations across the nation, according to the Associated Press. DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart made it clear Wednesday the plan was merely a suggestion from an employee that was never authorized.
The program, even if only suggested, brings to light more widespread license plate tracking utilized by other government and police agencies. That includes the Justice Department, which has used license plate scanners in Nevada, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey among other states to track vehicle movements in real-time, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Private companies, such as truck agencies, also use license scanners, according to the AP.
On Wednesday, two Republican and Democrat lawmakers on the Senate Justice Committee demanded answers from the DOJ on why such information was gathered in the first place, citing concerns the privacy of law-abiding citizens might be violated.
"We appreciate that all of these new technologies are potentially useful law enforcement tools," wrote Republican Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa and Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, the WSJ reported.
However, the Senate Justice Committee "needs a broader understanding of how [license-plate readers] are being used, how the data is being shared, and the policies in place to protect the privacy interests of Americans whose information might be collected using these devices."
DOJ said the surveillance program is to aid in the seizure of assets like money and cars in drug-related cases.
All information is only stored for three months, the DOJ said.
