Posted on 02/19/2014 8:14:24 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place.
The national license-plate recognition database, which would draw data from readers that scan the tags of every vehicle crossing their paths, would help catch fugitive illegal immigrants, according to a DHS solicitation. But the database could easily contain more than 1 billion records and could be shared with other law enforcement agencies, raising concerns that the movements of ordinary citizens who are under no criminal suspicion could be scrutinized.
A spokeswoman for DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) stressed that the database “could only be accessed in conjunction with ongoing criminal investigations or to locate wanted individuals.”
The database would enhance agents’ and officers’ ability to locate suspects who could pose a threat to public safety and would reduce the time required to conduct surveillance, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said.
“It is important to note that this database would be run by a commercial enterprise, and the data would be collected and stored by the commercial enterprise, not the government,” she said.
~snip~
Agents would be able to use a smartphone to snap pictures of license plates that could be compared against a “hot list” of plates in the database. They would have 24-hour, seven-day-a-week access, according to the solicitation, which was first noted last week by bloggers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Why do they need another boondoggle taxpayer-funded system? Why don’t just drive through motel parking lots like the cops do?
The feral government wants total surveillance over us, but we aren’t even allowed to see Barack Hussein Ubama’s Harvard transcripts.
Here is Georgia, our local police department loves to pull over vehicles that do not display their rear license tags from over 50 feet.
“according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place.”
We have Obummer’s promise!
I think you have to be pretty naive to think this is not already in place. Yeah, they have 8 to 12 cameras at every traffic light intersection for nothing.
DHS should be eliminated along with at least half a dozen other cabinet positions and FFFG departments.
Most CCD and CMOS imagers are very sensitive to IR and could be blown out by them, but if the camera has an IR filter blocking it the LEDs would never be seen by the imager.
Sony had a video camera they cheaped out on and didn't include an IR filter. Put a filter which blocked visible light and allowed IR through like a Kodak Wratten 87 across the lens and it would show the hot parts of peoples' bodies pretty clearly.
Police in our area have cameras that recognize and search for licenses right now.
They are just trying to formalize what is already in place.
The owners/officers of the LLC are public record.
Imagine what you could do in an election, if you fed this data into your electoral database!
You’d know where all your supporters go, and where all the people who don’t support you are! In a Get-Out-The-Vote drive, you’d know who drives around in the neighborhoods you are interested in, and what organizations had shuttlebusses!
naturally only the party in power would get this info.
I wonder, in Obama’s Civitas database, where all the data comes from.
THIS is the database I’m talking about:
Forking Fantastic Federal Goobermint?
bump for later lament
It’s already being done...Cop cars are fitted with the cameras and they are taking pictures by the millions...
There are no illegal aliens anymore so we know we were lied to again...
Who in the world is Homeland Security???
I have argued for years that driving is absolutely your right. It is your liberty, just as riding a bicycle, riding a horse, or walking in a pair of Nikes. Your right to liberty comes from god not from government and therefore you don't need a license.
Because all fugitive illegal immigrants have properly registered their vehicles, and are all current on their tags, registration, and proof of insurance, right? GEEZ
The slippery slope here is the technology. In the eyes of the law a license plate would be considered public view, and a reader installed on a vehicle would be aiding in running those plates. It wouldn't be hard to manipulate that technology into something a lot worse. Deploy a large number of readers and appropriate software and you have the ability to track anybody through town.
I think what ICE is looking for is "hits" on suspect license plates, but the tendency is to overuse the tools given. Prior to the restraint of judicial intervention, the Feds has gotten exceptionally loose with their use of trackers.
Soon they’ll just put some microchip/GPS in all new plates issued. This will cause the cost to quadruple, so there will be a program that makes it affordable for “poor people”. (/s)
bkmk
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