I agree that this part is scary, but it isn't news. I first heard about license-plate readers back in 2008, and at that point police could already take a wired

I agree that this part is scary, but it isn't news. I first heard about license-plate readers back in 2008, and at that point police could already take a wired-up squad car for a cruise through a grocery store parking lot, scanning a couple hundred plates. Onboard software would run the numbers for outstanding warrants or lapsed registrations, and alert the officer. This has already been going on for years. The capacity to mine that data effectively is slightly more recent, but I'm sure the logfiles exist.