Thread: Is this okay or an invasion of privacy - Automatic License Plate Readers

I don't have much trouble with this, so long as they're not putting it in specific areas that could serve the purpose of shaming people. If your vehicle comes up as being in the location of a crime, then either it was stolen and you should be talking to the police, or you or someone you allow to use your vehicle is a potential witness and you should be talking to police.

I have a huge problem with this on several fronts...

One: who passed a law authorizing this? The answer is: no one. If this is like most government use of data, it is not accountable to law.

Two: In Missouri when they input your plate, it cross references your information across several state data bases, including all your legal records: criminal record, outstanding warrants, court cases pending, court cases settled, gun ownership. How long before tax data bases and professional information is added?

Three: Storage it just too fucking cheap... this info is never, ever going away.

I don't like this... I don't like it at all.

The traffic camera system in Nassau County was supposed to be used to prevent/solve crimes.
Until the day it was activated.
It was immediately put into Traffic Violation mode.

How is this functionally different from being required to show your papers on demand, for no cause? With the ability to cross-reference data bases, the government can literally keep track of every movement, every stop, every store parking lot we pull into. It's wrong. Law enforcement does not need the ability to casually call up any information on people who are not doing anything than driving legally. Use of such systems, except in instances of ongoing investigation, should be declared unconstitutional.

Is this equivalent to requiring a warrant for a premises search?
Currently, using a Debit/Credit card can be used to track your movement.
Even gasoline usage can be used to estimate your movements within a vicinity within a certain time period.

Originally Posted by USCitizen

Is this equivalent to requiring a warrant for a premises search?
Currently, using a Debit/Credit card can be used to track your movement.
Even gasoline usage can be used to estimate your movements within a vicinity within a certain time period.

A debit card CAN be used to track you. Gasoline usage CAN be used to track you. BOTH (theoretically) require law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access those records. With license plate scanners, they can track you simply by having every police car automatically record all the license plates it passes and entered into a data base. A police car in one section of town records you in that section of town, and later another police car records you in a different section of town. You are being tracked AND RECORDED without ANY just cause, reasonable suspicion, or anything else. Big brother is truly watching you. And it needs to be stopped NOW, before people get used to the idea. (Too many accept it as "just the next step" as it is.

Not cool. Not cool at all. This WILL end up being just another overreach of government. Count on it.

I don’t like it but doubt if it is an illegal search.

The license plates are in plain sight. A cop could sit at the side of the road and manually record the plates and get the same result.

Since the plates are in public and could be tracked by ordinary means it there is no assumption or expectation f privacy.

So far, the police have used this two ways.
In one application it checks license plates against a list of cars reported stolen.
In another it checks plates against a list of cars with large numbers of unpaid parking and traffic tickets.
Since I favor the apprehension of car thieves, and parking scofflaws, I approve of how the device has been used so far.
When and if the device is misused, I'll re-evaluate the situation.

Originally Posted by USCitizen

Is this equivalent to requiring a warrant for a premises search?
Currently, using a Debit/Credit card can be used to track your movement.
Even gasoline usage can be used to estimate your movements within a vicinity within a certain time period.

Remember when Clinton expanded the laws regarding internet monitoring? It was called Carnivore.

Yeah Liberals are so for the people.... as long as they can monitor and control everything you do.

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Originally Posted by RDK

I don’t like it but doubt if it is an illegal search.

The license plates are in plain sight. A cop could sit at the side of the road and manually record the plates and get the same result.

Since the plates are in public and could be tracked by ordinary means it there is no assumption or expectation f privacy.

So what about when they record your car on your property and the times you are there?

There is a growing trend in government to create more and more lifestyle profiles of the citizenry. The IRS has been working diligently on such a program for years in an effort to refine their audit targets. This data collection will be used in the same way.

If you show up on the camera near the gun store more than 3 times a year you'll go into a database. If you regularly show up at Starbucks near your house around 7:00 every morning that will go into the data base. If you show up in the same grocery store parking lot on a regular basis you'll go into the database. Eventually they'll be able to put together a profile of how you spend your days and, more importantly, flag the times when you get "irregular".

Let's think about this...do you think a family law attorney might like to have access to this data? How about a pedophile cop? How about your insurance company?

Guess they will have to put a camera in my driveway because that's where my car is most of the time.

This technology has been in use in the uk for at least a decade with no problems'. As far as I know it's mainly used for stopping people with no car tax or insurance and for the congestion charge in London.