[The Worm]

Interesting article regarding Speed Pass and privacy issues in today's Salem (MA) newspaper.

News
Police can use E-ZPass data to track drivers



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MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — E-ZPass data can be a useful tool for police — a fact highlighted by the state police investigation of congressional candidate Gary Dodds' accident.

Dodds crashed his car into a guardrail on the Spaulding Turnpike on the night of April 5. He said he wandered away, swam across the Bellamy River, then huddled in the woods for warmth until he was found a day later.

Dodds, 41, of Rye, has not been charged with any crime. However, state police have said his account of the accident did not jibe with certain facts and that there is evidence of three crimes related to the extensive search for him after the accident: theft of services, falsifying physical evidence and false public alarms.

In court papers unsealed last week, investigators said that when Dodds was found, his shoes were soaking wet, yet his clothes were dry. He spoke of a head injury, but had no visible bumps or bruises on his head and there was no damage to the car indicating that he had hit his head, police said. Also, no one saw or heard him cross the river.

Dodds also said he never drove through the Dover toll that night, but E-ZPass data showed his car passing through both the Dover and Rochester tolls.

Since the electronic toll system was installed last summer, there have been six law enforcement requests for E-Z Pass data showing the time and place each transponder passes through a tollbooth, said Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton.

Transportation Commissioner Carol Murray said the first request came from the FBI and involved a bank robbery.

The other four requests came from the Merrimack County attorney's office; the Middlesex County district attorney's office in Massachusetts; and Massachusetts State Police (two requests). Authorities did not release any more information about those cases.

New Hampshire, one of the last states on the east coast to join the E-ZPass system, has tighter restrictions on the release of information than some other states.

"As you can imagine, privacy issues we knew would be big. Other toll authorities told us what to expect," Murray said.

The data is exempt from the state's Right to Know Law, meaning it is not public. Information that identifies vehicles, their owners and drivers, or the E-ZPass account holder can be used only for administering the system.

"Where a citizen travels is no one's business but his own," said state Rep. Neal Kurk, R-Weare, a leading privacy advocate in the Legislature.

Law enforcement agencies must persuade a judge there is evidence of a possible crime and get a subpoena to obtain transponder information from the Transportation Department. The data is not kept in-state, to make it more anonymous, Murray said.

Electronic data is kept for 60 days and video images of the license plates on vehicles passing through the tolls are retained for 30 days under the Transportation Department's rules, unless there is a violation. Then, they are kept longer, Murray said.

"We do not hand over information to someone who wants to see if his son or daughter went through the tolls or if somebody's boyfriend went through the tolls," she said.

In Dodds' case, state police asked for the records shortly after the accident, while he was still missing, Boynton said. It showed that Dodds went south through the Dover tolls at 7:39 p.m. His accident occurred on the southbound side of the highway at 8:17 p.m., but north of the toll plaza. Dodds was found about a mile away, 27 hours later.