The fact that private malls are even tracking license plates to begin with is disturbing. Obvious in hindsight, but disturbing.
Many malls are high crime areas. Car theft is often much higher at malls, for example. The owners of these malls have a responsibility to provide a safe environment. There have been a few malls in our area that closed after gang related activity and violence in their vicinity became known. If you are a mall owner and have this happen, would you not be remiss to take measures to try to know who is visiting your proper…
Source: I worked for a company doing something vaguely similar (we covered the inside of stores, not the parking lot). I spent my time there working to provide best in class anonymization to only allow aggregate data.
As to your specific fear mongering questions:
> If a car shows up that is registered to someone on a warrant for a violent crime, should the mall owner do nothing? Not their business?
1) that data isn’t generally publicly available to them
2) that’s why you hire security guards
> What about a car registered to someone who lost their license due to DUI? What if that person frequents the mall and kills someone with their car?
1) again, not generally publicly available
2) what makes you think the drivers licenseless person could be the only driver