I was on Fort Worth Texas about a year ago, and was staying at a hotel. Every few nights I saw a car driving around the lots there. It was equipped with 4 scanners on the front of it.

I stopped him one night, he had two laptops running some type of ALPR setup. He closed them pretty quickly.

He went on to tell me he was part of the police. So I asked, are you a police officer? No, he wasn't and never has been. He works for a company based in FW, that has contractors who funnel data to various entities. Used to find repossessions, stolen, and who knows what else.

He told me in so many word to get lost, and call the police to tell them he says hi, then speed off.