Parking inspectors in Amsterdam will no longer use scan cars to detect stolen vehicles, following a decision by the city council due to privacy concerns, as reported by AT5. The practice was already temporarily suspended last year.
The issue arose from using data collected for different purposes to identify stolen cars. Amsterdam’s alderman Melanie van der Horst informed the city council that all alternative methods carried legal risks or other objections.
Scan cars, operated by Egis Parking Services, scanned license plates to check for parking violations and shared data with the Dutch Vehicle Authority (RDW) to identify stolen vehicles, which the police would then handle. This method helped return about 90 stolen cars to their owners in 2021 and 2022.
In 2019, Amsterdam claimed the practice complied with privacy laws, but criticisms arose due to data sharing concerns between government entities. An external investigation confirmed that no alternative methods were free of privacy issues, leading to the permanent halt of the practice.
Source: NOS