Posted on 03/11/2021 9:13:46 AM PST by Theoria
License-plate readers are feeding immense databases with details on Americans’ driving habits, helping solve crimes despite little public awareness about the breadth of the data collected or how it is used.
The vast network of automated license-plate scanners, which has been growing for decades, makes it nearly impossible to drive anywhere in the U.S. without being observed. The scanners first appeared on telephone poles and police cars, then on toll plazas and bridges, and in parking lots. Today, scanners are routinely placed on tow trucks and municipal garbage trucks, gathering images of plates on cars they pass while making their rounds.
The scanner data has become a key tool for law enforcement from local police to the Justice Department, requiring no warrant to access. Plate scans were crucial, for example, in the arrests of a number of suspected rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, including Dominick Madden, a New York City Sanitation Department employee who called in sick a day before the deadly attack.
In New Jersey, license-plate scanners captured Mr. Madden’s car as it crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge, according to court documents. His vehicle was spotted in Maryland on I-95 and I-895 and was seen two days later returning to New York by the same route, the charging documents said.
That data bolstered charges of forced entry into a restricted building, impeding government business and disorderly conduct. Mr. Madden pleaded not guilty in a January federal-court appearance. A lawyer for Mr. Madden didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The scanners, which automatically grab images of any plates they identify, are an often-overlooked layer of the surveillance that blankets Americans, along with social media, online searches, mobile-phone apps and credit-card purchases.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
We were so busy worrying about the government paying for Sara Fluck’s condoms that we didn’t bother to notice that, now, every movement we make outside our homes (and many inside our homes) are now tracked and logged.
Might as well get used to it.
License plates are made to be observed. Sometimes they are observed by a person, and now they are observed by machines.
Hoping not to get in trouble for this, but couldn’t they filter the license data by having Deplorables on file but deleting persons of color?
Otherwise the license plates and search data are racist./s
Example is when dna samples of black men questioned are not needed for a trial, and the person may have been totally unconnected to the criminal, the dna record is supposed to be expunged. Otherwise, the police had thousands of male dna records to search through looking for crimes they may have committed recently.
“License plates are made to be observed. Sometimes they are observed by a person, and now they are observed by machines.”
There’s been discussion of that ‘excuse’ in the past, in legal cases. The question being whether something where we had a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as driving to the supermarket to buy milk, should be entered into a database, for all to see.
Privacy advocates think not, due to, among other things, the fact that bad guys can use that information to figure out how to rob you.
Others don’t have a problem with it.
Don’t drive a vehicle, don’t use a cell phone, don’t use a credit card, don’t use the internet, don’t go to medical appointments, don’t use a bank, don’t work for a paycheck, don’t have kids, don’t travel and you might not be tracked.
If your shotgun on your lap on the porch of your remote woods cabin was obtained before registration laws, you’re okay.
“Don’t drive a vehicle, don’t use a cell phone, don’t use a credit card, don’t use ...”
Nice list. With facial recognition kicking in all over, maybe don’t leave home.
Scary.
My state only has rear license plates. They must hate that I back in to stalls. :)
One thing to note about the case in point here. It’s likely, although not stated, that the Deplorable who was arrested lied to the FBI about his whereabouts during the rally, probably denying that he ever went to DC.
He now facing 10 years for lying, just due to those cameras. And who knows, maybe that was the intent all along. In other words, perhaps the FBI knew he traveled to DC, likely was at the rally, but literally had no evidence. They contact him, lie to him, scare him, and get him to say he never went to DC. And while people shouldn’t lie to the police (that’s what attorneys are for), his life is now ruined, when otherwise he would have been fine.
That’s what these cameras can do to people.
There is a popular bar near my house, at about 9:00pm a unit would cruise through the lot and scan all of the plates, return at 11:30pm, and do it again. Any plates that matched would be entered into that night’s “watch”. When the car passed any cop car in town, the computer would alert the officer, and the driver would get pulled over, on a pretext. Turned out the owner was friends with the mayor, and leaned on him to stop the practice.
I’ve noticed these before and will take your picture even when it’s not a toll. Going into California same thing. It was the only thing that made sense - they’re tracking cars via plates.
> License plates are made to be observed. Sometimes they are observed by a person, and now they are observed by machines. <
Yep. I might not like it, but there is no expectation of privacy in public. And that includes my license plate info.
The problem, of course, is what is done with that info. To say, “We traced Leaning Right to a gun club.” - that’s no big deal. But to say, We traced Leaning Right to a gun club. He might be a terrorist.” - that’s a big deal.
In would never advocate a polarized see thru cover for your license plate and would certainly never advocate a IR LED license plate frame in areas with traffic cameras.
> And while people shouldn’t lie to the police (that’s what attorneys are for)... <
People shouldn’t talk to the police, period. Be nice. Be polite. But don’t talk to them. “My lawyer would kill me if I gave a statement. So I need to talk to him before saying anything.”
In this excellent video, a professor explains how you can get into trouble talking to the police even when you’re both innocent and truthful:
Personally, I don't want my tax dollars to go government for anything. Period. They have taken too much already. I don't want more government. I want less. I want my freedoms back. I want my privacy back. The last thing I want is to be watched 24 hours day by anyone. I certainly don't want to pay for it.
“The problem, of course, is what is done with that info. To say, “We traced Leaning Right to a gun club.” - that’s no big deal. But to say, We traced Leaning Right to a gun club. He might be a terrorist.” - that’s a big deal.”
Actually, worse than that. Like guns shows, police and can observe and record the happenings at gun clubs, if they want, because there are so few...so if you go to either, there’s a good chance a cop will lay eyes on you and/or your car.
But how about Mr. Smith, your friend, who you visit after the gun show, maybe to pick up some tamales? Now he gets a ‘visit’ from the cops, with dogs, demanding to know what you (illegally) sold him, and when he says nothing, they later show up with a warrant.
It is SO EASY with nice, big, databases.
My state has only rear license plates too. My mid-sized SUV has a trailer hitch. I’ve found that my bike rack that goes on the trailer hitch obscures the license plate enough that the automatic readers don’t work as I’ve gone through a number of “toll by mail” situations and they didn’t bill me later.
Once word of this gets out they will make bike racks illegal.
Disclaimer: I’m actually willing to pay the toll. Put in a kiosk into which I can throw the toll and I don’t have a problem.
Well, most of us are stupid enough to carry a tracking device disguised as a cell phone everywhere we go, so what’s the big deal about license plates?
Disclaimer: I’m actually willing to pay the toll. Put in a kiosk into which I can throw the toll and I don’t have a problem.
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