Cops with new license plate reading technology

Reading this thread really bothers me. First of all, I applaude the efforts of the police department doing this. You display your license plate as your vehicle's identification. Police have always had the right to check up on your vehicle for any reason. You're in public, on a public road, with other public vehicles, right? This system makes it easier to mass search and identify potential problem vehicles. If you don't like them checking on 'your' vehicle, then take the plate off and see how far you'll get. But ohhh, this is a great intrusion on our personal freedoms.

About eight months ago I let my insurance lapse due to a few financial difficulties. I didn't think anything of it because I hadn't been in any driving incidents in over 15 years. If an officer would have stopped me then, I would have gotten a modest fine and pretty much been free to go once I provided proof of insurance again. However, about two months later, still without insurance, I was in an accident that costed me over $3000US. Want to talk about a wake-up call. That situation could have been much, much worse - I am thankful that's ALL it cost me. Oh, I learned my lesson quickly and I won't let any financial problem get in the way of making sure my car is legit.

I live in a crime-ridden city - and one of the worst - Memphis. I applaude the efforts of most police here. Sure, there are some who are corrupt and abuse their powers. But the majority are good, honest people who want to eliminate crime - they live in it, see it and don't like it. And it bothers me to see so many people on this forum complaining about police and their efforts. Thout shalt cry policestate when some officers make ill-judgements, yet turn your head when they bust a pedophile, rapist or murderer. I despise seeing someone tased for no reason just as much as you do. Watching a drunk aggressive idiot unable to obey simple police commands getting tased, well, that sits just fine with me.

If this method returns a stolen car to their owner, takes a repeated DUI off the roads for good, or identifies a driver with a suspended license, then please tell me, where is the problem. Oh yeah, because you are afraid they're going to pull YOU over for just being the amazing citizen you already are.

Well, I wish I WAS pulled over before my situation went sour. I would have hated it at the time, bitched and moaned up a storm, but hey, the law I violated was there for a reason. And I screwed up.

McMartinson

reply to post by mcmartinson

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I don't know about where you are, but here in NY it's a big deal if you get popped without insurance. It's as bad as a DWI. They will revoke your Driver's license, impound your car at a rate of $250 a day, and wack you with a fine of $1000.

When I went to court for the tickets, I showed proof of insurance (aquired literally hours after the incident) and that was wiped from the record. My court costs were about $100 total. I 'was' expecting a few thousand for it, and I sweated over that for days - to the point of loosing sleep - and I am thankful that's all I ended up getting.

reply to post by mcmartinson

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You wouldn't have gotten away with that in NY. If you got the insurance after the incident, your cards would have had the next day's date on them. And therefore, you would be incriminating yourself by presenting them.

Oh, and by the way, if you got in an accident while un-insured. More charges and serious jail time.

I support this 100000%

I have had my tags stolen off my Jeep TWO TIMES. And they were never found. Maybe if this technology was being used back then, they would have been found.

I have been hit by an uninsured motorist before....and boy, that was a huge pain MY arse.

I agree with Budski and Grady 100% in everything they said

reply to post by mcmartinson

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Thank you for sharing mcmartinson- you helped prove my point exactly. People, the last thing I want is someone breathing down my neck watching me and telling me what to do, but I have to remember this:

1. We DO NOT have the right as a citizen to drive on a public road without a personal & vehicle license. Period. Sure, we are born with many certain inalienable rights- but this is not one of them. Walk all you want, but the collective force of society has prohibited your license-less meandering. This same collective force has hired trained officers to patrol the maintained roads to keep the flow- however the density of cop vs citizen is no contest. They basically need all the help they can get.

2. Having a license requires all the rest of the responsibilities that come along with car use/ownership- including insurance, not driving under the influence, not strapping endangered pandas to your roof, etc.

3. I grew up in and now currently live in a small town. You know officers by name around here, and they know you too- even if you've never met... I love to visit major cities to feel the vibe and check out the sites and acquire goods I can't get around here- but, there is something I cannot ever get over and that is the complete anonymity available in a large city. I just cringe at how easy it is to just basically get away with anything with such a dense population. Two, three turns, blend in and no one would find you. I feel that until there is a collective spiritual uprising in the general populations mental awareness, we are going to continue to suffer the consequence of paying for safety with our 'freedoms'. This is just one of many attempts at control to come until we can cross that barrier.

It needs to said that it is 'cool' to be righteous and have self worth. Just not at the expense of others.

I was hit from behind by a car which subsequently was found to have no insurance (or car tax). Great!

Now if an unmarked car, or camera on a bridge (as they have for years in the UK) can catch these b....rds then I'm all for it.

Reality check here folks. Do you really think that "big brother" can be bothered tracing millions of legal cars to trace the whereabouts of some citizens and yet ignore the few thousand illegal drivers.

I'm all for this. I have a future career in law enforcement, if things work my way. Technology is wonderful, and much easier on me as an officer to just be able to push a button to read plates, instead of having to do it manually which would be tiresome.

Does anybody else notice that he is going 100+ at 1:20 minutes in, , for no apparent reason. must be some kind of conspiracy in the making

this Technology is not new news it has been in Stoke on Trent (UK) for at least a year.


It will get worse with iris recognition and fingerprint scanning.

I saw this on the news and read about it in the local newspaper last year.

Not really "New" stuff.

If you are not driving with a suspended liscens and/or don't have a pending arrest warrent, you really have nothing to fear with this "New" "Big Brother" stuff.

A couple years ago, some people were manufacturing "Meth" in the house across from me. If there had been some new fangled big brother stuff that could have found them out sooner, I would have welcomed it with open arms.

For all of those who see the danger this big brother mentality will lead to. Have no fear, when regular so called middle class folks are choosing between eating or buying gas to get to work. Or chooseing between making the house payment or paying registration fees on their vehicle and then get thrown in jail for non-compliance with the law, then we will see who is glad this technology is being used to "catch criminals".

Guess who the criminals will be then? Guess who will be here (if they still have electricity and internet service) crying for their right to travel and assemble without government intrustion. Which, by the way is a God given right, enumerated in the Consitution.

For all of those nay sayers, who think everything is milk and honey in the land of the free, you are in for a very rude and painful wake up call, it is happening NOW, and you refuse to see it.

People are going to be seeing a whole slue of new technology hitting the enforcement agencies - mainly directed at surveillance, containment, and control.

My best advice to the average consumer ... invest in earplugs. Though, it may not prevent permanent damage, they may make the discomfort more tolerable.

reply to post by jackinthebox

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It sounds like your police force is a retarded joke. What country do you live in? Saudi Arabia?

ANPR can only tell the cops something could be wrong. They'll run the plates, check with the DVLA to make sure the car is registered correctly, and they'll check the insurance database to make sure you're insured. If a notice has been put on the car (say, it's been used in an armed robbery, and the offenders are still at large), then the cops will definitely pull it over and ascertain the identity of the occupants before either arresting them and impounding the car, or releasing them on their way if they've done nothing wrong.

Of you drive your car on the road, you directly affect the rest of the road users. You have to play by the rules. ANPR does nothing a cop and a radio can't do, it only does it quicker. If, to you, lack of efficiency is a good way to ensure the police behave properly, then you have greater problems than the cops having ANPR.

People without drivers licenses shouldn't be on the road, as who knows if they can drive.

People without insurance shouldn't be on the road, as if they crash, the financial burden to all the parties involved can be crippling.

Vehicles without registration shouldn't be on the road, as if they're used in a crime, who knows who the cops should to talk to.

It doesn't take much reasoning to see ANPR is a good technology. If you're worried about the cops misbehaving, then you need to fix your police force, not limit their access to technology.

reply to post by cutbothways

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Oh this one really takes the biscuit - are you seriously suggesting that the CIA can monitor nearly 300 million people?
What a ridiculous assertion.

Or perhaps you are suffering from delusions of grandeur and paranoia and think they are all out to get you...

The article in question is about SPIES - see the difference?

Are you a SPY that you need to worry about such absurdities?

it's a long, long way from the CIA trying to arrest spies to the police using number plate recognition (which simply means it's an automated process rather than them calling it in)

OHNO A CAMERA - THEY'RE SPYING ON ME.

No wait, that's actually just my webcam.


[edit on 21/5/2008 by budski]

Un-marked cars are also a Hazard on the road I can't find ANY information on un-marked cop car accidents thats strange...But I can find link after link of stories that support my claim.

Short Link

Here is a good site for those who would like to read up on all the crazy ass cops who get away with all kinda crap

www.badcopnews.com...

Mod Edit: Long link skewing page, shortened.

[edit on 5-21-2008 by worldwatcher]

As for the technology.....Who is really surprised??? All cops are used for in this day and age is tax revenue. Thats it I mean besides the investigators who find killers,rapist,and child molesters etc. the rest are just paramilitary tax jockies nothing more nothing less. In 25 years the red light and speed camera's will replace a big percentage of the traffic units in big cities. Look at the direction it's going once they get all the sensor and camera's in place it will be on to the unemployment line for a lot of uniformed officers. Law enforcement is a side arm of the military and all those unmanned drones the military have will soon be patroling our streets. Its coming and no one can stop it just get use to it?