Posted on 09/29/2012 9:56:28 AM PDT by Theoria
For more than two years, the police in San Leandro, Calif., photographed Mike Katz-Lacabe's Toyota Tercel almost weekly. They have shots of it cruising along Estudillo Avenue near the library, parked at his friend's house and near a coffee shop he likes. In one case, they snapped a photo of him and his two daughters getting out of a car in his driveway.
Mr. Katz-Lacabe isn't charged with, or suspected of, any crime. Local police are tracking his vehicle automatically, using cameras mounted on a patrol car that record every nearby vehicle—license plate, time and location.
"Why are they keeping all this data?" says Mr. Katz-Lacabe, who obtained the photos of his car through a public-records request. "I've done nothing wrong."
Until recently it was far too expensive for police to track the locations of innocent people such as Mr. Katz-Lacabe. But as surveillance technologies decline in cost and grow in sophistication, police are rapidly adopting them. Private companies are joining, too. At least two start-up companies, both founded by "repo men"—specialists in repossessing cars or property from deadbeats—are currently deploying camera-equipped cars nationwide to photograph people's license plates, hoping to profit from the data they collect.
The rise of license-plate tracking is a case study in how storing and studying people's everyday activities, even the seemingly mundane, has become the default rather than the exception. Cellphone-location data, online searches, credit-card purchases, social-network comments and more are gathered, mixed-and-matched, and stored in vast databases.
Data about a typical American is collected in more than 20 different ways during everyday activities, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Do you have a live view setting? Remotes pulse, and you are as likely to shutter an off phase
Hey MB, great to hear from you I hope you are doing well. I was just thinking about 1 of your essays where they were eliminating all of the conservative thinkers while reading about Pat Caddell trashing the media.
There is no way in hell that I could get good writing like that from any social media site! This place might be a bit of an echo chamber at times but it is still the best place to get relevant breaking news and I could never consider it social networking.
Why is it have we no power to stop all this?
Google lets us find any article, anytime, no matter where it was “published.” When you find a good writer, just look for his name on google, and set the field to “last month” or whatever. Even the “new media” is evoloving rapidly.
I like your writing and have read the entire book EFAD on your website. I appreciate you making your works so accesible to those of us affected by the Obama economy who can’t afford to buy right now.
you can try it yourself, turn on your camera look at the screen then point a tv remote at it, press a button.
No worries comrade. Soon Gov’t will be invited into our cars via gps tracking and data collection. Do not fret, I’m sure they will employ various means of turning off your car if it is stolen. After all, it is in your best interest.
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They are already in your car in a black box that records your movements.
the government is tracking people and making it difficult to move around. Freedoms gone.
So how come these cameras arent shot out? In my father’s day, if some government did that, all the men in the neighborhood would be shooting out cameras. Daily.
I don’t fear a roadside camera. I fear governments big enough to deploy resources aimed beyond criminals, to law-abiding citizens.
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roadside cameras are just another arm of evil government.
Your information has been public for years, but only available to someone with the drive to go down to city hall or archives and find it. And they usually had to sign in and out of the archives.
Now any dip with the ability to run a handheld can know more about you than you would want.
It has crossed my mind, and I’m sure it has others as well. Some cameras actually have other cameras watching them to prevent this, after all it’s only the taxpayers money.
It has crossed my mind, and I’m sure it has others as well. Some cameras actually have other cameras watching them to prevent this, after all it’s only the taxpayers money.
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So a person would have to shoot all the cameras out.
Thanks! I also have a lot of essays etc there on the links/essays page.
Ok, I tried it too, and it works - with my cell phone camera, but NOT my 12MP digital camera, which makes me assume shutter speed or exposure time is critical. Do we know what the typical sp/exposure of a police/traffic camera is? And do they typically have IR filters?
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