According to an Aug. 13 story in the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority said it has turned over motorist Fast Lane records to criminal prosecutors under a recent court order. Fast Lane was installed in 1998. This marks the first time tollbooth technology has been used for law enforcement surveillance in the state.

The Globe reported that an MTA spokesman disclosed the news last week. The way Fast Lane works, motorists using it place radio transponders in their vehicles, enabling automatic billing from special lanes along the Massachusetts Turnpike and several tunnels. Because the system tracks the date and time of each charge, the data of course can become a record of a vehicle's location

This information is customer account information and thus confidential, but MTA spokesman Bob Bliss told the Globe that a judge had ordered the agency to turn over data in a criminal investigation case. The Globe reported that Bliss said he couldn't name the judge, court or motorist involved, citing an ongoing grand-jury proceeding that he also declined to describe. He did say that no charges had been filed.