While the devices are touted as investigative tools — helping to locate stolen cars, missing persons and the like — privacy and civil rights advocates say the technology also raises concerns around misuse and surveillance.
(TNS) — Davenport City Council members on Wednesday unanimously approved a contract that will give Davenport police an enhanced tool for tracking stolen vehicles, wanted criminals and abducted children.
The little-noticed, high-speed cameras mounted on police cars, road signs, bridges and poles photograph thousands of plates per minute. The devices convert each license plate number into machine-readable text and check them against agency-selected databases or manually entered license plate numbers, providing an alert whenever a match or “hit” appears.
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“We develop a ‘hot list’ of different types of crime or investigative information, and all it does is compares both lists” to help recover stolen vehicles and for “scanning high-crime areas” to track or locate suspects involved in violent crimes, and to monitor that registered sex offenders are not violating restrictions that dictate areas where they cannot be.
UGH! More monitoring! More surveillance! Less freedom in this FREE America..
Just gross misuse of public taxes and suppression of our freedoms
Oh boy this is complete garbage of reasons to arrest someone. What happens to innocent drivers whom happen to associate with registrants by having their car on the registry. Talk about harassment bought and paid for by the government. What’s next have GPS mounted on cars? Hell we track cattle, registrants, inmates, information and other bs. Where is the tracking of the minions that come up with these ideas and vote on useless legislation? Government of the people, by the people, for the people my foot!! Government of the corrupt, by the incompetent votes, for pure power and profit!!
I personally know FL uses this technology on their roads to capture, recognize, and analyze license plates in real time.
With GPS devices being ruled as a search by the courts, this seems also very close to being considered a search. If this technology saturates our communities, it might as well be an invisible ankle monitor.
This is a necessary step in the right direction. The oversight and abuse need to get to absurd proportions before there will be outrage and the pendulum will swing the other way. Registrants are basically the only minority group that are still openly attacked, discriminated, harassed, ridiculed, and oppressed with impunity. They are certainly the only group with discriminatory laws enacted to limit their freedoms. The media does it for ratings, the politicians do it to raise fear and garner votes. But it is getting pretty close to the tipping point.
Those “readers” are an abuse of power and technology, just like SORNA is.
So lemme get this straight. I’m required to register my wife’s vehicle because I occasionally operate it. So when she drives past one of these cameras they can say it was me and punish me… yeah real good job tracking me there.. your tracking my wife.. who is innocent..
They use ALPR’s in my city. I contacted the police and requested a printout of six months worth of ALPR records for my license plate. I was surprised when I received it only by the fact that every single “hit” on my license plate was my car parked on the street directly in front of my house or parked in my driveway. Frankly, it was a bit disappointing 😏 that it didn’t at least catch my car at the grocery store, City Hall, church, or a shopping center. 100% of them were at my house.
BUT…… I did suggest to LEOs the last time they came out for a compliance check that, in the future, they not bother coming out in person, wasting their time and causing me a hostile interaction, but instead simply pull the ALPR records for my license plate and that would verify I live – or at least park my car – where I say I live.
Betting the “sex offender” remark was only added to get the public to agree with their use.
It is where the car is, not necessarily the person. Just like a person who ran a red light in a car that is not theirs, the person who registered the car will be ticketed, not the driver. They have to prove who the driver is just like having to prove who parked the car that was highlighted when the registered owner was not responsible for parking it.
This is nothing new i had a friend on the run form the cops in California back in 2012 and she was captured within 2 days using this technology its called a “skiptracer but that’s not all they got every law enforcement agency in America have purchased this device its called a “stingray” it tracks cell phone activity it can even read text messages and everything if you don’t believe me you can Google it the Department of Justice and law enforcement entities around the United States were trying to hide the fact that this device even existed it wasn’t until those big brother activist expose the usage of this technology .
You ever noticed how compliance checks went down a lot in the last couple years its because they allready know everything and yes the cameras are tracking your license plates and if your a sexoffender your also being track through facial recognition all they gotta do is punch in your ss# and your whole life pops up.
The only way to avoid this technology is living off the grid being a Transit but once your label a transient in California you get assigned your own personal detective to your case so if you say you sleep under an overpass you guarantee he’s going to be there at 3am to see if you really sleep there
Good luck
“…monitor that registered sex offender’s CARS are not violating restrictions that dictate areas where they cannot be.”
There. Fixed it.
I’m afraid the genie is out of the bottle on this, and not just for registered people. The amount of day-to-day surveillance being done is astounding, and there are only a few ways to avoid being caught up in it.
Is it possible to go off-grid and not be captured on surveillance? Sure, but that’s not how I want to live. Even if you get rid of your car and take public transit, you’ll still be captured on video surveillance every time you board the bus/train. Paying cash for everything, avoiding every store and street corner with a camera, not taking any form of transit, etc. makes for a pretty difficult life. This all applies to everyone, not just registered people.
I don’t know what the answer is, but pointing out the problem is easy. My plan for right now is to recognize that every thing I do can be, or is being, watched and act accordingly.
I have 100% completed my sentence, probation and all. I have reintegrated very, very well into society. I have an amazing job and I pay taxes. I volunteer when I can and I contribute nicely to the local economy. Why am I being monitored?
U.S Marshalls #1 sexofender tracking device the “STINGRAY”
https://amp.burlingtonfreepress.com/amp/80785616
Good luck
Amazing how L.E. Scrambles to justify actions under the guise of ,” We only use it within strict regulations”. I know from a good resource ( a retired Highway patrolman ) that this is not the case.
Police use this technology to do everything from hitting on women to finding out who owns expensive cars. They are the biggest abusers of any technology offered for “safety” purposes.
What would be nice is to attach a discrete tracking device to patrol cars. Easily done while they are stuffing their faces at starbucks or Denny’s. Then link them to tracking software. Use their tactics to spy on them.
I’m sure we would find police sleeping in parking lots ( or somewhere where they shouldn’t be ), being out of their patrol zones, and other stuff.
Those tag readers in California are the only reason why I am constantly having run ins with law enforcement.. I pull into the shopping center parking structure, do my grocery shopping and come back and there is two squad cars blocking my car in its spot. “We have some questions on why you are here?, I see you already did your annual.” “Grocery shopping at the Walmart next to this parking structure.” .. from what I learned over the past decade is the police recieve all tag reading information in real time from shopping centers and public parking structures that use the tag reader.