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Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras are becoming more and more common on American roads, thanks to one company. Flock Safety is a tech company that provides surveillance products to a wide array of clients. Its largest customer is law enforcement. Namely, governing bodies use the company's ALPR cameras to capture millions of U.S. driver plates all over the country. Many local citizens are unaware of the cameras. Chiefly, this is due to the quiet methods used to install them and utilize recorded data. Eric Fielder works in real estate. He recently noticed something unusual in his community. The resident...

DES MOINES — Iowans could soon purchase a license plate that features the yellow “don’t tread on me” Gadsden flag, with the fees collected going to fund training and education by National Rifle Association-affiliated groups. The flag, which features a coiled rattlesnake and the slogan “Don’t tread on me,” has become a symbol of individual liberty favored by Libertarians and conservatives. It has its origins in the American Revolutionary War and was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress. House File 2424, which would make the plates an option for drivers in Iowa, was passed...

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

Michigan became the second state in the country to roll out the world's first digital license plate. According to an article in The Car Connection, the state of Michigan just approved Reviver Auto's digital license plates called the "Rplate." Reviver Auto boasts that a total of five states have already approved their digital license plates. "Our innovative, multi-functional digital license plate, the Rplate Pro, will be on the road in California, Florida, Arizona and Texas in 2018". George Orwell could never have dreamed of a world where license plates became a tool for more government surveillance. Digital license plates are...

WICHITA, Kan. — Kansas is recalling hundreds of vehicle license plates on the streets containing the “JAP” lettering in the wake of complaints that it is an ethnic slur offensive to Japanese Americans. The Kansas Department of Revenue said there are 731 active registrations containing that random letter combination on standard license plates. Vehicle owners were sent a letter dated Tuesday asking them to return the plate to their county vehicle office within 30 days for replacement at no cost. Plates not replaced within that period will be identified in the state’s system and will be replaced at their annual...

A freelance automotive journalist worries a testing site operated by the Illinois Tollway Authority could be for more than just testing automated tollway technology. Paul Brian said he’s noticed a site with various sensors on northbound I-294 for years with a sign that reads “for testing purposes only.” Illinois Tollway Authority officials said the site is used for testing various sensors, but only for tollway purposes. The site, established in 2015, had an initial price tag of $2.7 million. “The Illinois Tollway has used the test site to study a range of systems – some of which were adopted and...

When you're driving, there's a good chance you've seen someone on the phone, and maybe you've even been that person. Fifty-seven percent of American drivers admit to being on their phone while driving. Indiana Toll Road construction for the 80/90 Push project is just about halfway done. They expect to be finished July fourth, but in order to do that, they need workers to stay safe. So they're trying to cut down on those numbers. It really is difficult to put a dent in those numbers because we're all on-the-go. On top of that, you probably haven't met anyone who...

Across the country people have tried all sorts of ways to trick all-electronic tolling technology from capturing their license plates in order to avoid paying a toll, but officials in Massachusetts said the tricks aren't new and the technology is ready to catch the scofflaws.Massachusetts will move to all-electronic tolling on Friday and has Raytheon's All Electronic Tolling System ready to read E-ZPass transponders as well as take pictures of the vehicles including the rear and front license plates if drivers go through without a transponder.Raytheon's system is able to take color pictures of vehicles and track the make and...

TUALATIN, Ore. — A Tualatin couple has been subject to borderline harassment for displaying the last name of a presidential candidate on their cars' license plates. Nine years ago Brian Trump ordered special Oregon vanity plates. --SNIP-- The intimidating behavior by other drivers began about 18 months ago, Trump said. "It took me a minute to figure out. I didn't cut this person off, [I] used my blinker, I'm not like driving crazy," Trump laughed. "Someone goes you're not a Trump supporter are you? And I was like, it's my last name!" Trump says he made the connection, but continued...

Mohammed Weiss Rasool was an Afghani who immigrated to the United States and got a job as a police officer. And then he did what you would expect him to do. Weiss Russell (he has changed his name from “Weiss Rasool,” the name under which he was convicted), is currently employed as a Financial Management Analyst in the IRS Deputy Chief Financial Officer’s office. In 2008, Russell/Rasool was prosecuted for his role in tipping off Abdullah Alnoshan, a close associate of al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and a friend of Russell’s from their mosque. According to the Justice Department’s Statement of...

Full Title:*****************************************************Owners of 'Terrorista #1' BMW license plate revealed as the SAME friends pictured with the Boston bomber in Times Square***************************************** Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev are from Kazakhstan They were classmates of bombing suspect Dzhokhar TsarnaevDzhokhar may have slept at their house on the night of the bombingThey've been in custody since last Saturday and a lawyer says they are 'shocked' by the allegations against their friend Friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrested last week who cruised around in a car with the ‘Terrorista #1’ license plate have also been revealed to be two of the group of friends recently...

After a long battle in the courts, pro-lifers in North Carolina will finally be allowed to display their support for unborn babies on their license plates. On Thursday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the “Choose Life” license plates that state lawmakers approved in 2011 are constitutional, according to WRAL. The battle over the North Carolina pro-life plates went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court last year, LifeNews reported. In June 2015, the high court ordered the 4th Circuit Court, which previously struck down the law, to reconsider the case in light of the Supreme...

The Maryland House has passed a measure prohibiting the transfer or renewal of a license plate depicting the Confederate battle flag to another vehicle. [...] Maryland does not now offer plates with the Confederate battle flag. But prior to November, the Motor Vehicle Administration offered a Sons of Confederate Veterans organizational special registration plate that included it. ...

A southwest Virginia lawmaker has filed a bill that would allow a Confederate battle flag to again be displayed on state-issued license plates. Senator Charles W. Carrico Sr. told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that his constituents believe Gov. Terry McAuliffe went too far when he moved to have the plates phased out. The Grayson County Republican says he represents his district "first and foremost." ...

=San Jose's Garbage Trucks May Do Police Surveillance With License Plate Readers The government of San Jose, Calif. has come forward with a proposal to mount license plate readers to the city’s garbage trucks in an effort to expand police surveillance beyond department cruisers. Have no fear, innocent citizen, for the trash companies may be stepping up to help our friends in blue. San Jose, California happens to be America’s tenth largest city - that makes it pretty difficult for the police force to keep up with everybody. In a story by the local San Jose Mercury News, the new...

An ongoing lawsuit has pried loose new records linked to a family of Sarasota Saudis who left home in a hurry just before 9/11. It was Halloween night, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 were still fresh on the the minds of Americans. At a time when everyone was on edge, the sight of a man disposing documents in a dumpster behind a Bradenton storage facility aroused suspicion. Summoned to the scene, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies confronted the man, who had a Tunisian passport. According to FBI records, authorities searched the dumpster and found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad,...

exas commemorates the Confederacy in many ways, from an annual celebration of Confederate Heroes Day each January to monuments on the grounds of the state Capitol in Austin. Among the memorials is one that has stood for more than a century, bearing an image of the Confederate battle flag etched in marble. But you're out of luck if you want to put that flag on your license plate. Texas says that would be offensive. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether the state can refuse to issue a license plate featuring the battle flag without violating the free-speech rights of...

The NSA isn’t the only government agency raising concerns about electronic privacy. Local police departments are coming under similar scrutiny—not only for using spying technology, but for hiding their use from the public. At least 25 police departments now use what is known as “Stingray,” a briefcase-sized box that swallows up cell phone data within a mile radius. More than one in three large police departments are also using license-plate readers, which can record every plate—even on a four-lane highway—from vehicles going at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. […] But the two technologies raise broader questions about...

North Carolina's anti-abortion license plate is unconstitutional because the state doesn't provide the same forum for motorists on the other side of the contentious issue, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a federal judge's ruling that the "Choose Life" license plate is unconstitutional. Lawmakers approved the anti-abortion plates in 2011 and rejected proposals to offer plates with messages "Trust Women" and "Respect Choice." That constitutes "blatant viewpoint discrimination squarely at odds with the First Amendment," wrote appeals court Judge James A. Wynn, who is from North...

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee (shown) has vetoed a bill that would have authorized the state to offer a “Choose Life” license plate to raise funds for a faith-based crisis pregnancy center in the state. The governor cited the First Amendment's supposed separation of church and state mandate that he insisted prohibited the state government from involving itself in such a campaign. The measure, which was approved by the Democrat-controlled state legislature earlier this month, would have allowed half of the $40 cost of the vehicle plates to go to Providence-based CareNet, a Christian crisis pregnancy center. Supporters said the...