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* Garrett Brnger at Illinois Issues has a good story about the controversy over electronic license-plate readers…

It doesn’t take much time at all, fractions of a second, to be marked and mapped, recorded and reported.

The automatic license plate reader cameras don’t look like much — just a pair of strobe lights on the back of a squad car, or maybe a cartoon character, depending on whom you ask.

“We had little kids call them ‘Wall-E,’” says Springfield Police Sgt. Charles Kean, whose department has been using the technology on two squad cars since 2013. The reference is to a lovable animated robot, the titular character from a 2008 Disney film.

But the mounted cameras are a little more formidable than that. Like many technologies available to law enforcement, they offer power that police praise and civil rights advocates consider warily. ALPRs, as they’re known, can scan and record thousands of license plates every hour. Comparing the plates to lists of stolen or otherwise flagged vehicles, the systems’ software sounds an alarm when there’s a match — giving police officers a handy technological edge in traffic enforcement.

“It’s impossible to remember 25,000 plates and cars and whatnot,” Kean says. With the ALPRs, there’s no need for officers to try.

Go read the whole thing.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:37 pm

Comments

Sorry to digress from the thread, but can someone remind me what sparked another controversial one today, HA1 to HB 3128 (Hoffman–requiring rules be enacted before agencies could enter an intergovernmental agreement)? I feel like there was a minor scandal, but I am drawing a blank.

Comment by Tusker Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:46 pm
Knowing the government, they will use this technology and still make us affix front plates to vehicles.

Comment by Fairplay Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:47 pm
===I feel like there was a minor scandal===

The Republicans complained when Quinn did that with Michigan on some Obamacare contract.

Now, however, the GOP governor wants the same powers.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:52 pm
Remember when the boot first became available? City workers walking down the street with a huge list of boot-able license plates. Can’t stop technology.

Comment by a drop in Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:52 pm
== The automatic license plate reader cameras don’t look like much — just a pair of strobe lights on the back of a squad car, or maybe a cartoon character, depending on whom you ask. ==

Some look like that, others are more blatant. When I was in NYC last year, some of their squad cars had multiple cameras (about the size of typical surveillance cameras at gas stations) mounted; one on top and one on each rear fender. They were very open about the use of them.

Comment by RNUG Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:55 pm
All the data but none of the knowledge means everyone can be convicted of something based on the data bits that are collected from you daily.

It is an ALPR that got me stopped, frisked, stuffed and brought in on a 35 year old warrant on an entirely different man, who it had been determined, was no longer alive.

If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:55 pm
That will be more data than they know what to do with just like the NSA.

Comment by Liberty Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 1:56 pm
We voluntarily give much, much more data than a license plate reader via our phones. And, we’ll give more for a free app! , But, they complain about this? The word “privacy” is not in the constitution.

Comment by nothin's easy Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:13 pm
I remember when Michael Scott’s body was found near the river close to the Sun-Times building. The police were able to recreate his car’s movements the entire day leading up to his suicide by using the cameras already in place by the Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

Brave New World kind of stuff.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:16 pm
Sorry, that was me at 2:16. Updated my browser.

Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:17 pm
Brave New World indeed. And marijuana is the Soma.

Comment by Fairlane Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:32 pm
== We voluntarily give much, much more data than a license plate reader via our phones. ==

Speak for yourself. I have the GPS feature turned off.

Comment by RNUG Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:33 pm
Brave New World indeed. Some cities, like NYC, you can’t anywhere without being on camera.

Comment by RNUG Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:35 pm
===The word “privacy” is not in the constitution. ===

Wow.

Just… wow.

All hail the police state.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:54 pm
===All hail the police state===

Indeed, Rich, indeed.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” - Ben Franklin.

Hmm. “Ben Franklin or - nothin’s easy -”…

I’ll stick with Mr. Franklin.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:58 pm
Rich, the link is broke. Can’t get to the rest of the story.

Comment by A guy Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 2:59 pm
Big Brother is slowly encroaching, and we are letting it happen because of the boogeyman of terrorism. Groups with an agenda always use moments of crisis to leverage permanent change. Plate readers and stngray phone trackers are collecting personal data without a warrant without any hint of probable cause.

Comment by relocated Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:06 pm
@A guy
I think the wuis.org site is having problems. I couldn’t get to any of it.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:08 pm
@RUNG:
“Speak for yourself. I have the GPS feature turned off.”

Unless you run w/your cell phone battery removed from your phone except when in use…you’re being tracked w/or w/out GPS being ‘on’. Your cell tower ‘pinging’ is more than enough to triangulate your position essentially anywhere you are.

Comment by How Ironic Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:08 pm
Am totally against use of these license plate scanners.

This Techdirt is just bone of many summing up why:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140604/12404427462/foia-request-effectiveness-license-plate-readers-greeted-with-blank-stare-virginia-police-department.shtml

Example of the ’slippery slope’ that can occur with these license plate scanners:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140613/09224127569/license-plate-reader-company-sues-another-state-violating-its-first-amendment-right-to-build-18-billion-image-database.shtml

There’s a lot of smart uses of technology. IMO, this isn’t one of them. We’ve got way way too many existing databases which aren’t ‘clean’ - too many errors, outdated information, etc.

And when you interface those contaminated/incomplete databases with license plate scanner data, there’s going to be trouble.

IMO, the way this technology is being used is just a tragedy waiting to happen.

Comment by Judgment Day (on the road) Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:23 pm
I see Brnger has got a new gig after his Hooter’s brawl with Dimentri. I’m glad to see him doing well after the Anchor Man incident. (Springpatch stuff)

Comment by Qui Tam Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:25 pm
The link is broken, and it’s not on the Illinois Issues site. I often try it to check out the WUIS site to catch stories I’ve missed on the radio and it doesn’t work about half the time. Couldn’t get Vinicky’s excellent interview with Rauner the other day and had to google around to find it posted on a St. Louis area station.

WUIS really needs to get this fixed.

Comment by Guglielmo Marconi Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:33 pm
===@RUNG:
“Speak for yourself. I have the GPS feature turned off.”===

RUNG, tell this to RNUG when you see him. Don’t call, the phone’s off. lol

Comment by A guy Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:37 pm
===The link is broken, and it’s not on the Illinois Issues site===

It’s not broken.

Clear your browser cache. Clear your history, too, just for good measure. Close the browser, restart it. Voila!

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:38 pm
Nice to see Garrett doing some hard hitting journalism after being “hard hit” by a “journalist.”

Comment by Gus Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 3:50 pm
Driving is a privilege, not a right. If you want the privilege of driving on the state’s roads, you have to play by the state’s rules.

Comment by Just Me Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 4:00 pm
===If you want the privilege of driving on the state’s roads, you have to play by the state’s rules===

Hey, goofball, the state is not some dictatorial entity. And rules can be changed to the desires of elected legislators.

Man, some of you people are truly dark.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 4:07 pm
The train has left the station on personal privacy in the US, especially post-911. And it’s not coming back.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 4:09 pm
You are out in public with a license plate in plain view. The fact that the cops have a device that can read thousands where before they could read only dozens doesn’t diminish or increase the loss of your privacy. You are in a public place displaying a license plate in plain view of EVERYONE.

I just reread an interesting piece on the Franklin quote:

http://www.lawfareblog.com/2011/07/what-ben-franklin-really-said/

It makes for an interesting read - kinda like the old “let’s kill all the lawyers” quote from Shakespeare.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 4:10 pm
- dupage dan -,

I’d also read the comments following the link.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Apr 24, 15 @ 4:21 pm