Posted on 05/10/2013 10:25:42 PM PDT by Altariel
Show us the data.
That’s the message behind a joint lawsuit seeking to force the Los Angeles law enforcement authorities to release a massive trove of information collected by ubiquitous cameras that read license plates and can thus track the movements of millions of motorists not suspected of any crime. The cameras, called automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), are on fixed locations, including stop lights, street signs and in squad cars. Each camera can record as many as 1,800 plates per minute, and more than 160 million "data points" have been collected in Los Angeles County, according to one report. Critics say that gives authorities a huge database on the comings and goings of ordinary citizens.
"By matching your car to a particular time, date and location — and building a database of that information over time — law enforcement can learn where you work and live, what doctor you go to, which religious services you attend, and who your friends are," said Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch, whose group has joined with the American Civil Liberties Union in filing suit. "The public needs access to data the police actually have collected to be able to make informed decisions about how ALPR systems can and can't be used."
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“But we’re more than willing to have a judge decide this matter,” Whitmore said Thursday. “The irony is we share the concern of privacy. Do we want to release files on people who have done nothing wrong?”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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....and yet, the alleged concern for privacy does not keep them from collecting and compiling the data in the first place.
I think Toledo, OH has that system. Smile alot, messes w/ the facial recognition...or so I’ve heard.
Print out the license plate of a city-council member and tape it over your license-plate.
You know ... what you said is actually not too far from becoming common. Latest estimate (have heard) is ten to twenty percent of all tags on vehicles nationwide are bogus. Don’t know it to be true but if true says a lot about what is going on inside our nation.
Why are these poeple alowwing the readers to get the license plates. Use a photo blocker........
They’re going to that system in downtown Houston; its hurt business there.
Recently, a woman disappeared from my town in South Florida. I was amazed at how many cameras were in operation that caught her...at red lights, on stores, parking lots, and moving buses. But even with all the surveillance, they did not find her body as a result of the cameras. It was a private citizen giving information, much like the “Boatboy Bomber” in Watertown.
The cameras are for control of the populace, not for crime solving.
Kinda ironic that the government can film us but we can’t film them.
I favor the use of license plate readers by police. There are millions of wanted persons at loose in the country, and this a crime stopping tool to aid the police stop vehicles related to stolen vehicles, and wanted criminals.
“Wanted criminals” may one day include Freepers.
Be careful what you support.
Indeed.
There is a difference between using a reader to check a plate, and collecting data on everyone.
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