Posted on 03/23/2014 6:15:30 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- There are 1,228 cameras mounted on the trunks of police cars across New York.
From the tiny village of Jordan to New York City, the cameras snap a picture of every plate on every car that drives by.
It's an effortless 100 pictures a minute for each camera, called an automatic license plate reader. A few pictures each shift might produce an alarm from a statewide hotlist updated daily: The registration is suspended, the car is stolen, the driver is wanted.
But the rest of the plate pictures - millions a day across the nation - are mostly warehoused in databases where they sit for anywhere from months to years. Most of the pictures are seen by no one. If they were, they would show where millions of innocent drivers have been.
The license plate readers are a massive fishing net that is effortlessly cast. This is what makes them so popular and feared. They are the paradox that is intelligence technology.
The data socked away has been used to solve crimes and stop violence. But it also documents to the government where law-abiding people have been for months and even years.
(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...
Well, innocent only for so long. Sooner or later they’re going to violate some law somewhere. Then they’ll “get it”. Innocent people just haven’t been caught yet. :>}
Well...if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear, right?
How long before some democrat legislator submits a bill to require all newborn babies have an RFI chip embedded before they leave the hospital?
or no such agency.
To state the obvious, the cost of and the manhours spent serving this technology is disproportionate to the quantity and the severity of the ‘crimes’ detected. Except for auto theft and the rare possibility of a fugitive, the rest is bureaucratic blood-drawing: expired tags, insurance etc.
Home burglary? Car break-in? Call the police and for your trouble you will get a shrug and a question: ‘Aren’t you insured?’ Well, what if I am? Does that mean the cops aren’t going to pursue the perpetrators?
I hesitate to join the ‘ban that’ crowd but political donations from police organizations must stop. It’s a guarantee of bad decision-making from the very start as laws and tactics focus on revenue and not on keeping the peace. Arrests are trumpeted while conviction rates are hushed up. Fines are wildly out of line with the severity of the offense (e.g. $300+ for 5 mph over an artificially low speed limit) and the system rigged to push any summons holder to pay the extortion rather than have a day in court.
Our local paper routinely reports people being stopped by police after a license plate scanner in a parked patrol car identifies them as unregistered cars or suspended drivers. I understand the concept and technological improvement, but can we lay off half our cops if this technology is available?
“... A few pictures each shift might produce an alarm
from a statewide hotlist updated daily:
The registration is suspended, the car is stolen,
the driver is wanted. ...”
-
A photo of a license plate does not determine who is driving.
Once again, a prime example that today’s cops want to sit around and eat donuts while playing computer games while the po-po puters do the work for them.
Don’t give them any ideas! ;)
BTW not long.
Should do it at the border or people on Visas. The capture rate would really go up.
I believe there are clear plate covers that render traffic cameras useless.
“I hesitate to join the ‘ban that’ crowd but political donations from police organizations must stop. It’s a guarantee of bad decision-making from the very start as laws and tactics focus on revenue and not on keeping the peace. Arrests are trumpeted while conviction rates are hushed up. Fines are wildly out of line with the severity of the offense (e.g. $300+ for 5 mph over an artificially low speed limit) and the system rigged to push any summons holder to pay the extortion rather than have a day in court.”
I agree; like the teachers’ unions, law enforcement has become an entity unto itself, squeezing the people who pay them. After the de-policing in response to the Crown Heights and LA riots, nobody can justify paying police officers anymore. They have a legitimate role, but have strayed so far from that as to be a useless (very expensive) economic drag. The layoffs our cities here in NJ faced a few years ago have had no impact on crime; despite their claims of keeping the peace in war zones, our urban police do nothing.
The Feral Government uses the threat of terrorism to build a bigger and more oppressive national police state.
The state and local governments use the fear of crime to build a bigger and more oppressive Police State at the local level.
“Hide? Funny you should mention it. Mud...oh darn, hit that mud puddle and splashed mud all over that dedgum plate.”
You can be ticketed for obscured license plate too.
“I believe there are clear plate covers that render traffic cameras useless.”
And, guess what, those are illegal in NY as well, as is having any mud or snow on a plate....even in inclement weather.
In Westchester County, New York, police officers earn an average of almost $160K a year not including fringe. When you add fringe, the number is over $200K a year. For the older tiered police, when they retire, they get free medical for life and get reimbursed their Medicare premiums. All compliments of the property owner taxpayer. The biggest joke is that there are local police departments in every town that do the actual police work. County police patrol the parks and golf courses. There are also state troopers who patrol the highways. Can you say bloated government?
And Westchester is not the most expensive police department in the state. Nassau holds that honor.
And illegal in many other states also
Our cops here in NJ are very expensive as well; one I know just retired at 46 (after 25 years on the job - he got on before any college requirements), and we’ll be paying for him for decades to come. RETIRED AT 46!
Another retired around 60; he was earning over $110K when he retired, and his pension was $72K annually. There is a reason why companies and taxpayers are fleeing our area; if I didn’t have family in the area I’d have left a long time ago rather than get hosed like this.
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