Taking pictures of license plates and recording tracks invades privacy? Scholars question the "unconstitutionality" of zone speed testing. Lawyer Li Yusheng explains the relevant legal issues

Taking pictures of license plates and recording tracks invades privacy? Scholars question the "unconstitutionality" of zone speed testing. Reported by Dongsen News reporters Huang Zifeng and Zhang Zhonghua

"Interval speed testing" has been regarded by the police as a technological tool for law enforcement in recent years, but it has repeatedly caused different opinions from all walks of life. The police explained that in accordance with the traffic regulations, the interval speed measurement complies with the requirements for scientific instrument certification. However, many legal circles and scholars questioned that the "interval speed measurement" restricts people's freedoms and rights, and may be unconstitutional. Some even described it as a "traffic version of the Watergate case". Speed measurement data The bank may become a tool for the government to monitor the people.

The principle of interval speed measurement is to set up automatic license plate recognition cameras at the beginning and end of a specific road section. When a vehicle passes a specific point, the camera will take a picture of the vehicle's license plate and record the time, and then compare it to determine whether the vehicle is speeding. In April 2020, a defective speed check occurred in the "Yangcuo to Shengang" section of the West Coast Expressway in Changhua on Provincial Highway 61, resulting in the cancellation of more than 3,000 fines; the revised law stipulated that scientific instruments for law enforcement should be used After regular inspections passed and all counties and cities submitted their equipment for inspection, law enforcement resumed in February last year and is currently implemented on 45 road sections across the country.

The police explained that the "intersection speed test" detection equipment is a certified legal weight and measuring instrument, and the law enforcement locations and road sections are regularly announced on the website, so direct reports are well-founded and data protection also complies with the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act.

A judicial judge believes that there is still no strong evidence that interval speed measurement can prove that slow driving speed can reduce the rate of traffic accidents. The police's use of interval speed measurement for law enforcement is unconstitutional based on the principle of proportionality. What's more, what right does the government have to seize license plates from people without breaking the law?

Lawyer Li Yusheng explained that Article 23 of the Constitution stipulates that "restrictions on people's freedoms and rights" must be stipulated in law, and administrative orders, rules, and methods cannot be used. "Zone speed measurement" is actually equivalent to restricting the rights of passers-by. If it is not expressly included in the law, it will appear in the law. The provisions of the Road Traffic Management Punishment Regulations are in danger of being unconstitutional if there is no legal basis. Moreover, the driving record of an individual driver is personal information to a certain extent. If administrative agencies collect and use such information without a clear legal basis, it may infringe on people's rights.

Lin Zhixue, vice chairman of the Taiwan Traffic Safety Association, said that when there are more and more inter-area speed tests and the police use license plate recognition and intersection monitoring systems, people's whereabouts will be pieced together more completely. If the license plate records of non-violators are not deleted, the whereabouts will be lost. For fear of being connected, the use of this part of the information is not transparent. The Watergate case in the United States was about surveillance, and zone speed testing can be understood as "following surveillance." Isn't this the traffic version of the Watergate case?

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