police expand surveillance project
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A network of cameras will read up to fifty million license plates per day and keep the data for up to five years. It will have the details of your daily trips. Police were told to fully exploit the capabilities of the database.
The good news is that this is in England.
The bad news is that this is in England.
They get the privacy-busting goodies long before the US does. England has become a Surveillance Society, with a 14-1 ratio of cameras. Yes, technically there is no expectation of privacy on a public thorofare. But watching license plates and putting the information into a database is way over the top. There’s no good reason for this.
Don’t forget to visit your state congresscritter and let him know how you feel about cameras in public. Do not accept `it’s for the children.’ When you lose your rights, the terrorists have won. (And they’ve re-elected themselves.)
One Comment
Dave Zielesch
September 16th, 2008
at 9:01am
Being a retired peace officer from a major state’s traffic agency, I can relate, agree and add that although we have the technology in place to trample everyone’s right to privacy,- frankly… we don’t have the time nor manpower to do so. Great Britain has a documented record of stomping on civil rights for at least the last eighteen centuries that I can accurately argue. We, on the other hand- have the technology and although it is in place,- it is in use currently to track everything from the minor stop sign offender to the murder suspect’s tracks. I will also mention that I cannot say with any due degree of certainty what ALL agencies have the ability to violate our privacy have access to the cameras and surveillance equipment in service. I CAN say that in the state of California, the only CLAIMED agencies to have access to publicly mounted devices that are capable of the recording technology you speak of are VERY limited and that web sites administered by the D.O.T. showing intersections online are FOR that purpose, only. Being able to read a registration tag is NOT for the open public. (Claimed)
Now,.. I am not so naive as to suggest that “Big Brother” doesn’t tromple our privacy. I am just suggesting that my observations have been that in one of the most well staffed law enforcement agencies in the U.S.- we just simply did NOT have the manpower nor technology to spend each day of the week violating an individual’s right to privacy on the byways and highways. As a matter fact, withOUT proper probable cause, use of national databases and information devices like this for personal or non-departmental investigations is reason for dismissal.
What we SHOULD worry about are those agencies that migh have access to this technology that the public is not aware of. More information about this should be made public. THAT would help to educate us and give us a better idea of how little privacy we have on public roads and places.
Once again, knowledge will help to preserve our freedoms.