Attorney General Blanche on Friday defended the use of automated license plate readers, arguing the technology does not compromise Americans' privacy and is a legitimate tool for law enforcement. The remarks land in the middle of a growing national argument over how much surveillance the government should be allowed to deploy in public spaces. License plate readers, mounted on poles and patrol cars, log the plates and locations of passing vehicles and store that data for later searches. Blanche's position is that capturing a plate visible from a public road is not a privacy violation, and that the records help police solve crimes ranging from stolen vehicles to violent offenses. Critics counter that the systems amount to mass tracking, building detailed records of where ordinary drivers go and when, and that the data can be retained and shared far beyond the investigation that justified it. The dispute has become a test of how far the administrative state can extend its reach into daily life. Supporters of the readers say the alternative — fewer leads for detectives and slower responses to crimes — is a cost communities should not have to bear. Skeptics say the burden should fall on agencies to prove the systems are tightly limited, audited and purged on a strict schedule. For local communities, the practical stakes are concrete: whether their police departments keep, expand or curtail plate-reader programs, and what rules govern access to the data. Blanche's comments signal that the Justice Department is not inclined to retreat from the technology, setting up a continued fight with privacy advocates and lawmakers who want tighter restrictions.