There may be a valid reason to bar police from using the latest technology — a cruiser camera that scans license plates for criminals — but we haven’t heard it so far.

The hypothetical abuses that could occur, raised at a legislative hearing last week, ranged from the overly imaginative to the outright laughable.

South Portland Police Chief Edward Googins testified Friday that at his department, the first in the state to use the new device, it simply helps officers do the same work they do now, only more effectively, according to a story in Saturday’s Kennebec Journal.

“There are people out there who want to hurt us and those are the people we want to identify,” Googins told the committee.

The cameras automatically scan license numbers as officers patrol and quickly compare them to a “hot list” database of suspects. The officer is alerted only when the computerized system detects a match with a license plate number on the list.

It is easy to see how the equipment could help officers locate a bank robber, a fugitive from another state or a kidnapper.

Opponents have had to stretch their imaginations to cast doubt on the equipment.

State Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, has introduced a bill, LD 1561, “An Act to Regulate the Use of Traffic Surveillance Cameras,” to forbid their use.

Damon says police could misuse it. For instance, they might scan license plates at a political rally.

We have a hard time understanding why they would. Moreover, couldn’t a determined police officer simply write down license numbers?

George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, said his group is opposed to the bill because police might record the license plates of people attending a gun show.

And what? Find a drug dealer wanted in Boston who is up here buying handguns? Find a violent offender who is prohibited from owning guns?

Smith’s argument is simply a disingenuous attempt to make a Second Amendment issue out of something that isn’t.

His other argument had actual laugh value. He warned legislators that their visits to strip clubs could end up in a computer database and embarrass them.

Well, yes, anything is possible, we suppose.

An argument from the Maine Civil Liberties Union was similarly far-fetched. All these license numbers could end up in a computer database that could be hacked.

Zounds! Imagine what somebody could do with a random list of license numbers from the Maine Mall.

It also completely ignores the fact that any hacker or criminal could simply drive around the mall and obtain exactly the same information without hacking anything.

Sen. Larry Bliss, D-South Portland, offered a compromise, according to the Kennebec Journal: set up a group to see how well the South Portland experiment with the cruiser cam works.

“This is not the technology that symbolizes the dawning of the age of the police state,” he said. “This is a tool that advances police work to allow your municipal officers to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.”

Exactly.

The committee should realistically weigh the pros and cons of this technology and move the bill forward.