Report: Government Now Tracking Millions of U.S. Cars

A license-plate tracking system originally conceived to combat drug traffickers along the U.S.-Mexican border has drastically expanded to encompass millions of vehicles across the United States, according to official documents released Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials have tapped a database of vehicle movements, including times, dates and in some cases, images of drivers snapped by roadside traffic cameras, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Drug Enforcement Agency established the program to monitor and impound cars used by drug traffickers along the US-Mexico border, but documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal suggest that the program has expanded for a range of investigations unrelated to drug trafficking cases. Sen. Patrick Leahy criticized the unpublicized expansion of the program, saying that it “raises significant privacy concerns.”

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.