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His desire to shed light on the proliferation of license plate readers in his neighborhood in Huntsville, Ala., this year spurred an idea for a crowdsourced database where people across the world can upload the locations of the readers.

Over the past decade, license plate readers have become a useful tool for law enforcement agencies across the country.

The sheriff’s and police departments shared license plate information and perhaps even more sensitive materials with out-of-state agencies, against state privacy protocols, Sacramento County’s grand jury says.

“The pages said ‘license plate reader’ with an arrow pointing up,” Freeman said.

“There are people who defend their existence, but I don’t think it’s worth it,” he said of the license plate readers.