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View Full Version : Ark. police photograph license plates, store data




aGameOfThrones
03-03-2013, 03:19 AM
A police car with a device that photographs license plates moves through the city and scans the traffic on the streets, relaying the data it collects to a computer for sifting. Police say the surveillance helps identify stolen cars and drivers with outstanding arrest warrants.

It also allows authorities to monitor where average citizens might be at any particular time. That bothers some residents, as well as groups that oppose public intrusions into individual privacy. The groups are becoming more alarmed about license plate tracking as a growing number of police departments acquire the technology.

Though authorities in Washington, D.C., London and Chicago conduct extensive electronic surveillance of public areas to detect security threats or deter gang crime, "Today, increasingly, even towns without stoplights have license plate readers," said Catherine Crump, a New York-based staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

In Little Rock, even some city officials wonder about keeping data on drivers' movements.

"It bothered me particularly if someone wasn't guilty of a crime or didn't have any active warrants or hadn't committed a crime," city director Ken Richardson said.

However, Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said the law enforcement benefits outweigh any concerns about possible abuse of the information, which, as a public record, is legally available for anyone to see. He said the department may get more of the devices.

"Should that potential of misuse therefore eliminate the capacity of law enforcement to collect data which has a legitimate purpose for the safety of our officers or the appropriateness of enforcement actions? I don't think so," he said.

Little Rock police bought the tracker last year for about $14,000, as interest in the technology began spreading in law enforcement circles. The purchase didn't require city council approval and didn't attract much attention in town.
"There was no public notice or anything," police spokeswoman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said.

Richardson said he didn't hear about the device until after it had been collecting data for months. He said he said he hasn't heard many complaints.

"It's hard for you to have a problem with something if you don't know it's going on," he said.

Many Little Rock residents apparently still haven't heard about the surveillance. Angel Weston, 45, said she's glad to hear that police are looking for stolen cars and people with warrants but wondered about keeping logs of citizens' movements.

"I don't feel like they should keep the data for six or 12 months," Weston said.


http://news.yahoo.com/ark-police-photograph-license-plates-store-data-180420324.html

GuerrillaXXI
03-03-2013, 03:51 AM
This sort of thing is going on all over this godforsaken police state we used to call "America." With all the debt the country is in, it's amazing how government always seems to be able to afford all this expensive technology that would have made the Stasi green with envy.

Some have said that if there's a nonviolent answer to this technology, it lies in civil disobedience. Perhaps it's time to do away with license plates altogether, as they have become a de facto bar code on your vehicle. If enough people simply took them off their cars in defiance of the law, then that would be the end of this issue. And I think a lot of people would get on board with this, judging by the general tone of the comments under that Yahoo article. (I've mentioned elsewhere that the answer to face recognition surveillance, once it becomes more effective and widespread, is a mass protest movement in which lots of people start routinely wearing masks in public.)

One thing seems clear. If we ever get the chance to write a new Constitution for a renewed America, it will need to outlaw this sort of surveillance in public areas! If people or businesses want to put up cameras on their private property, there's nothing wrong with that.

bolil
03-03-2013, 03:59 AM
The fourth should cover this. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, places, houses and effects shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and PARTICULARLY describing the places to be searched, and the persons OR things to be seized"

Without probable cause, these activities are illegal. Existence as probable cause would be laughed out of any honest court.

You exist, and are thus capable of committing a crime. Well fuck it all if that's what we have come to.

MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2
03-03-2013, 05:52 AM
This sort of thing is going on all over this godforsaken police state we used to call "America." With all the debt the country is in, it's amazing how government always seems to be able to afford all this expensive technology that would have made the Stasi green with envy.

Some have said that if there's a nonviolent answer to this technology, it lies in civil disobedience. Perhaps it's time to do away with license plates altogether, as they have become a de facto bar code on your vehicle. If enough people simply took them off their cars in defiance of the law, then that would be the end of this issue. And I think a lot of people would get on board with this, judging by the general tone of the comments under that Yahoo article. (I've mentioned elsewhere that the answer to face recognition surveillance, once it becomes more effective and widespread, is a mass protest movement in which lots of people start routinely wearing masks in public.)

One thing seems clear. If we ever get the chance to write a new Constitution for a renewed America, it will need to outlaw this sort of surveillance in public areas! If people or businesses want to put up cameras on their private property, there's nothing wrong with that.


Unless they're feeding it to the state. The state is not so much paying for technology, but they're paying for the information the technology provides for them. Ir needs to also be illegal for the state to purchase such information acquired by anyone else.

tod evans
03-03-2013, 05:59 AM
Think about it folks.........

This is what people know about that's happening in Arkansas...

What might be happening elsewhere?

MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2
03-03-2013, 06:24 AM
Think about it folks.........

This is what people know about that's happening in Arkansas...

What might be happening elsewhere?


Well, they're doing it all over the place in FL. Although, these things are usually stationary to my knowledge.

noneedtoaggress
03-03-2013, 06:26 AM
"Should that potential of misuse therefore eliminate the capacity of law enforcement to collect data which has a legitimate purpose for the safety of our officers or the appropriateness of enforcement actions? I don't think so," he said.

Oh FFS.

mrsat_98
03-03-2013, 07:40 AM
Looks like a new round of right to travel folks will arrive.

WM_in_MO
03-03-2013, 10:25 AM
Someone has been doing that here in MO for at east the last two years. I see cars with those cameras on them every now and then and saw one patrolling my old apartment complex two years ago. I thought it was fishy so I talked to the guy and straight up asked (Nicely) if he was with any branch of law enforcement. He responded: "Something like that."

youngbuck
03-03-2013, 11:03 AM
Yea, this ain't just happening in Arkansas, it's happening almost everywhere across the country. I highly suspect that those "traffic" cameras you see setup at intersections are keeping track of where you go, what routes you frequent etc. Sure, it's unlikely that anybody is analyzing the data, but you can rest assured it's being stored in a database of sorts for a rainy day.

Anti Federalist
03-03-2013, 05:45 PM
Stupid cops.

Just slap a Wal Marx sticker on the side of the device.

"Private" now.

No more problem, amirite?