Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: BotheLumberJack

Finally all those illegals who have legal cars that are legally plated and insured will be stopped for sure.


That is a load off my mind.

So, instead of Sheriff Arpaio stopping "legal" citizens who "look Hispanic", he and his kind can focus on the "illegals" alone.

That ends racial discrimination, completely.

Or, maybe not. Who knows how they will actually use the new tracking system?

But, then again, if you're not doing anything wrong, why would you care if they are tracking you every minute of the day?

Look at the good side. Suppose you have a medical condition, like heart attack susceptibility, and they notice your car stopped for too long idling in some unusual spot, they could rush a medical team to your location, to check up on you.

Maybe even save your life, at that point.

And if you'd just stopped there for a quickie with your mistress, and they discover it wasn't really an emergency, they could just say "Sorry, thought you needed us", and chalk it up to a "drill" or "practice run" that could have saved a life..etc..

We can always put a positive spin on anything, or a negative spin.

So, what to do?

Soon, we'll all have microchips implanted, with wifi or G5 links, so they can track us even when we're on foot.


Another funny thing just occurred to me.

Once the database of licence plates and all the locations your car was recorded "seen" has been built, and they have the historic records of your travel patterns, the "auto insurance co.s" can then demand to access that information to look for cases of "fraud", where drivers say they are only using their car to buy groceries, but actually are making long trips out of state frequently, hence should be paying a higher insurance premium etc..

That database will be a great tool for "insurance investigators" to determine if you're entitled to any compensation, when you make claims.

The insurance co.s may even decide to monitor your driving day by day, and "adjust" your premiums automatically, according to what type of driving you actually do, what "risky areas" you frequently visit, etc..

It will be a great tool for micromanaging all sorts of things related to human behavior.

Even the local police have had this technology for years. Every now and then they drive through my company's parking lot with their scanner.
Why not I.C.E. ?

a reply to: Gothmog

You might ask yourself, why are we only hearing about this now? Not yet in the main stream, I mean the outsiders not the insiders.
because the rest of the media is focused on the latest political or Hollywood scandal, whether real or manufactured, and too caught up in themselves to notice their reality crumbling around them. The conditioning of the planet has worked well up till this point; sad, but true.

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

To be honest its nothing new and has been around for some time now. As a law enforcement entity they have access to the same systems other local state and federal agencies have access to. In general certain information can be attached to a license plate, like warrants, if the person is law enforcement, if the plate is restricted for law enforcement operations, if the plates are stolen, if the car is stolen, if its wanted in connection with a case etc.

Most larger agencies have patrol vehicles that are equipped with a multitude of cameras that constantly scan license plates that come within its field of view. If a plate has something attached to it, it will alert the officer and they go from there. Other jurisdictions have fixed cameras that can do the same thing.

Generally speaking the main focus of ICE is not really focused on motor vehicles however given how all crimes evolve over time it makes more sense now to see they have access to it. I would imagine ICE will be able to add info to plates that are relevant to their job mission. By extension it will help other law enforcement entities that come across a vehicle ICE has flagged with what they are dealing with should they conduct a stop.

Since US, Canadian and Mexican law enforcement have specialized access to each others systems it makes the job a bit more safer by way of knowing what they might be walking into instead of blindly stumbling into it. Those countries also allow law enforcement to run a foreign national from one of those countries and theoretically get a response from the respective country.

As for civil liberties - SCOTUS has ruled (several times now) that a person does not have an expectation of privacy in public. They also ruled law enforcement does not need any legal justification (reasonable suspicion / probable cause) to run a license plate.

Since nothing is changing other than ICE using the same system everyone else does I am at a loss as to what civil liberties are in jeopardy with this move.

If anyone has an answer to that last question put it out there. I am curious how others perceive this.

If you have a cell phone they know every place you have been in range of a cell phone tower. Some cars with built in cell phones can be tracked weeks or months later just by the pings from from the cell phones.

A lot of criminals have been linked to crimes just because there cell phone was pinged at a crime site.

originally posted by: ANNED
If you have a cell phone they know every place you have been in range of a cell phone tower. Some cars with built in cell phones can be tracked weeks or months later just by the pings from from the cell phones.

A lot of criminals have been linked to crimes just because there cell phone was pinged at a crime site.

The best tracking system I have ever seen, believe it or not, was OnStar. In one particular incident a person was threatening to kill themselves but would not provide a location. OnStar was able to direct the deputies to a farm, out into a huge pasture to an old barn where the person was located. The persons life was saved because of it.

With that said law enforcement needs a warrant to access location data from cell phones. There are a few situations where a form can be filled out by dispatch and authorized verbally by the requesting officer for an exigent situation where time constraints on filing for a warrant are overshadowed by the seriousness of the situation (kidnapping, suicidal person, hostages, runaway kids etc).

Just to add to your cell phone ping and crime location. There was a recent case where a person was sentenced to prison for committing a murder because the court accepted cell phone ping locations. Those ping locations placed the suspect at the scene in the time frame the coroner / ME determined as a time of death. It was the first time that info was used in that manner where a conviction was secured based primarily on the pings coupled with circumstantial evidence.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Thanks man.

Since nothing is changing other than ICE using the same system everyone else does I am at a loss as to what civil liberties are in jeopardy with this move. If anyone has an answer to that last question put it out there. I am curious how others perceive this.

I think hands are changing, what that entails I really can't say but yeah, it's got my curiosity burning too.

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

According to article, private agencies are already collecting pictures of plates. Now they are selling them, big surprise.
I think this will hurt tourism. That sector had major losses last year. I’ve traveled cross country a few times. I can’t imagine being stopped by police, ice, or whatever, every state.

a reply to: MOMof3

Yeah it will hurt tourism for sure, and tick off the locals to heights not seen before. I really couldn't imagine being stopped either, and some will stop you for no apparent reason. Thanks for commenting.