DeKalb Times

Republican state Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) feels he’s taking a stand against Big Brother by opposing a bill that would put GPS-tracking technology in license plates.

“Certainly one problem just jumps off the page right away and that’s the question of a major intrusion of privacy,”  he told AdvantageNews.com. “Do we really want the government to be able to track the location of your car at any time, day or night?”

Now sitting in the House, HB 4105 was suggested by Chicago Ald. David Moore as a way of addressing the rising number of carjackings now taking place across the state. Moore is also running for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state.

Supporters of the plan say the plates would be capable of sending alerts to law enforcement about crimes and provide the exact location of a stolen vehicle.

Demmer is opposed to giving the government such far-reaching powers, even as others argue similar tracking mechancisms already exist.

“When you have a cellphone, you are choosing which services you use, you're choosing whether to even carry it with you,” he said. “License plates are required to drive your car on public roadways. It's very different than an optional cell phone service. If you're driving without a license plate, you're going to get a ticket.”

Demmer added he also has cost concerns.

“You’d be taking off what is a very simple, low-tech, and affordable solution, which is a stamped metal license plate, and replacing it with a little digital screen that has to connect to a cellular network and has to be powered and all that,” he said. “There are solutions right now that they can opt in to. Instead of having this top-down mandate for cars in every single part of Illinois, millions of cars, because we have a problem with carjackings in certain areas.”