Goodbye! Texas to get rid of inspection stickers

Associated Press ^ | 06/24/2014 | Kevin Schwaller/Associated Press

[GeronL]

15. That huge crack caused by a pebble on the freeway that has slowly crept across the windshield

[GeronL]

The sticker printing union must have lobbied heavily against this

[servantboy777]

Many folks are not aware that these days everything is tied to your license plate....everything.

Ever noticed the new Texas plates? The black and white ones with the water marks and ghost like squiggly lines in two places on the plate. They have enhanced reflectivity and are designed to be read by ALPR’s.

Automatic License Plate Readers. These beauties are mounted on squad cars, highway overpasses and or where ever big brother feels the need to collect info on your comings and goings.

ALPR’s can read a lic. plates in very low ambient lighting and at speeds of up to 100 mph. They can scan/process hundreds of plates per hour and compare then to a state data base.

Officers now sweep through parking lots and neighborhoods scanning vehicles for violations of all types as well as stolen vehicles.

When a officer runs your plate, he now knows whether you have insurance, inspection, registration, Concealed handgun, wants and warrants, digital photo of your face and driving record all before he ever walks up to your window.

Welcome to the new world where privacy is a thing of the past.

Next class will be on surveillance drones used by local law enforcement. Don't forget to catch the episode on militarization of local law enforcement, (police state America).

http://www.texasobserver.org/the-eyes-of-texas-cops-are-upon-you/

http://rt.com/usa/drone-surveillance-montgomery-weapon-507/

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/us-police-force-becoming-militarized-2013.jpg

[trisham]

It’s frightening.

[deport]

This is also why Texas went to the change in the license plate holder/frame many people use.
They can’t cover any of the plate info so they can be read by the readers.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

in much of South Texas you see POS cars with bad tires, brakes and almost too dangerous to drive.

Here's my take.

There should be official inspection stations for the following purpose:

When a cop pulls over a car for any infraction, or an obvious defect (such as a broken lens or missing headlight) he could do a cursory walk around, and do the quicky (brake lights, turn signals, horn, wipers, high/low beams, tires) check.

If he spots a bad tire, he issues the driver a ticket to go to the official inspection station, which must give the car a clean bill of health (within a reasonable amount of time) Otherwise, the car is grounded, and if the driver is not compliant...a big ticket.

He could also check their insurance card, language skills and green cards at the same time. (heh heh)

[Grams A]

The sticker printing union must have lobbied heavily against this”

Not sure about that but I do know that I had to pay for new license plates this year. Not sure what that was all about except $. Preferred the old red, white and blue over the new black and white ones, particularly for Texas. Absolutely nothing wrong with my old ones. Since when do metal plates need to be replaced?

Wonder what was really behind this? Somebody owed a political favor? Do prisoners still make license plates or am I really behind the time?

[GeronL]

probably all of the above.

I don’t know either.

[servantboy777]

You bet’cha.

Have you guys heard of the hand held back scatter machines now being deployed? Law enforcement will begin wide spread use of this to scan the contents of citizens automobiles without a warrant...until 3 years later it ends up before the supreme court.

Very Orwellian stuff going on. Watch law abiding citizens, yet allow hundreds of thousands of illegals to pour into this country. Even our feral gubbamint is overtly corrupt, yet they want to exert more control over us.

Check it out.
http://www.slashgear.com/airport-security-gets-handheld-wi

http://www.officer.com/press_release/11532951/ase-introduces-the-mini-z-worlds-first-handheld-z-backscatter-imaging-systemth-z-backscatter-gun-23334759/

[servantboy777]

Sorry bout the first link...it broke. The second is fine.

[ontap]

How about no state income tax!!

[sportutegrl]

Got that, too.

[nascarnation]

It would be interesting to compare the number of equipment related crashes in states with inspection and without inspection.

It appears the split is about 50/50.
Here are the inspection states:
Arkansas, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

[aomagrat]

South Carolina did away with vehicle inspections years ago.

[familyop]

"You still have to get an inspection, but that inspection will become tied with your registration."

Weird. Even lefty Calirado, with it's off-camber shelf roads, doesn't have that kind of commie government support for established car dealers and car repair businesses.

[familyop]

"Is this a safety inspection or an emission test? Seven counties in Colorado require an IM 240 emission test. EPA mandate BS."

I haven't needed those for nearly 14 years and had nearly forgotten about them. Those traffic cameras all around the Denver area are creepy, too. Surveillance cameras (different kind) are even starting to appear in the middle of nowhere on the Range (one spotted in Park County on a two-lane highway almost 100 miles from the Springs).

[waterhill]

I used to put Vaseline on my plates to get through the toll plazas (Bush Freeway and etc.)

[servantboy777]

>>People say Texas is anti big government. B.S.<<

Right? Go to renew your drivers lic. in Texas and you will be asked to place both thumbs on the scanners to get a digital image and a digital image of your mug for facial recognition technology.

Think it's tin foil hat conspiracy stuff...go out to the TXDOT website. They began a bio-metric database sometime ago.