‘It feels a little hypocritical’: Jake calls out Ferguson’s toll camera exemption in new bill

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson recently signed three bills into law on privacy, one establishing new guardrails for the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), addressing concerns about federal immigration authorities accessing the data and using it to aid in arrests.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, questioned the move, which excluded a highly trafficked camera system in Washington, the state’s tolling cameras.

“You know what? I’m totally fine with not sharing with federal people. I’m totally fine with that. What [Ferguson] wanted to do was protect license plates from being scanned by all these different things,” Jake said. “They’re turning off the cameras because they can’t guarantee for deputies. If they catch one of these license plates outside of these designated areas that are supposed to be safe, they don’t want deputies prosecuted. And so until that is clear in the language, they do not feel safe using this because they have to protect deputies so that they can protect you guys.”

WA’s toll cameras run by Texas company excluded from privacy protections

Jake likened the cameras included in the bill to the toll cameras that were excluded, noting they pose the same threat to Washingtonians’ privacy, but are being overlooked even though they are equally susceptible.

“Specifically in the bill, they say all of these cameras that take pictures of your license plates, they want to protect you from federal intervention and oversight, fine, whatever,” Jake said. “What they have designated as not one of these types of cameras that they are not worried about is toll cameras. I thought to myself, well, how can they make that designation? Because in our state, the toll cameras take pictures of you while you’re driving a car.

“Not only are these pictures of your car, possibly even you, but they’re definitely getting your license plate,” Jake continued. “Those pictures are run by a company out of Texas, and so all of that information, at least until they tell me it’s not, I would have to believe, is then accessible by a private company in Texas. I don’t know if Governor Ferguson can guarantee the entire state of Washington. Can he guarantee that information cannot be accessed?”

Jake and Spike argued that excluding toll cameras from the bill undermines the government’s stated focus on privacy.

“This company in Texas that oversees our toll lane operations. They work with multiple states across the country with different jurisdictions and laws. That’s a lot of information,” Spike said. “If it’s so important to the governor to take a tool away from the law enforcement community, take revenue from the state, then what about the toll lanes?”

“If you’re not willing to look at toll lanes, it feels a little hypocritical, and it feels to me like you’re not willing to look at what is a really good revenue stream for the state, but then you’re putting money ahead of people,” Jake responded. “I don’t know if they can guarantee that all of that information is totally safe. On a side note, full disclosure, I don’t like the toll lanes, and they cost a lot of money every time you drive through them. I also want everybody to have their privacy too, because we value privacy, so they should shut them down.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.