BATON ROUGE - Lawmakers in the House have spurned a proposed program that would allow law enforcement agencies to automatically scan motorists' license plates.

The House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 7-3 Tuesday to kill the Senate-backed bill by Lake Charles Sen. Ronnie Johns, a Republican.

Johns had previously tried to launch the program, only to have former Gov. Bobby Jindal veto the bill.

Supporters said the pilot program - with nine parishes participating - was aimed at catching car thieves and insurance scofflaws. Johns said the technology would allow police to cross-check license plates with databases to determine if vehicles are stolen or uninsured.

Critics worried about the involvement of a private vendor slated to get part of the fine money and about data collection privacy.