Years later, I got a toll demand from an express lane around LA that had a false positive scan of my plate number—someone else’s partially obscured maybe?
I argued the car was registered elsewhere and wasn’t driven in CA, and they denied the appeal. I asked for evidence but they refused. I tried a FOIA request but it was denied because there’s an exemption for data that reveals individuals’ driving patterns—to get the photo I would have had to show up at an office in LA to show my ID and registration to prove it was my car, which it wasn’t!
CA law allows the plate scanning and dictates the toll violation letter must show the make and model of the vehicle in question. They just look up the DMV records for the scanned plate. They’re not doing any kind of verification that the vehicle matches. They have 100% faith in the infallibility of these scanners with no appeals process.