Ford submitted a patent application for technology in their cars that could report speeding drivers to the police, a system the company says would be used for law enforcement vehicles.

The automaker submitted an application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office early last year that contained several diagrams showing how future Ford vehicles could monitor the speed of other drivers, use onboard cameras to capture pictures of their vehicles, and immediately submit those records to the police through an internet connection. The patent application was published last month, according to a report from Motor Authority.

The record of speeding vehicles would also involve images of an “identifying feature” on the car to assist police with more easily locating the vehicle. The application noted that traffic police have a “need to quickly and accurately identify a speeding vehicle and take responsive action.”

Ford manufactures vehicles such as the Police Interceptor and the Police Responder. The application said one use case for the system could be in a “law enforcement vehicle” to help police monitor the speed of other drivers.

Ford indeed told Motor Authority that the patent “does not state that driving data from customers’ vehicles would be shared” with police and added the technology would be “specific for application in law enforcement vehicles.” They noted that patent applications are "intended to protect new ideas but aren’t necessarily an indication of new business or product plans."

The company generated controversy last year after the United States Patent and Trademark Office released their application for an autonomous vehicle that could repossess itself should the car owner miss payments. The technology would receive requests from financial institutions to lock the vehicle, deactivate features such as air conditioning, limit vehicle use outside of work hours, or start repossession, depending on the severity of the loan delinquency.