Police to scan and check thousands of license plates

Police to scan and check thousands of license plates

thestar.com

Ontario Provincial Police unveiled a new crime-fighting tool that will help catch offenders on the highways.

A special camera mounted on three OPP cruisers will make it easier to scan up to 7,000 licence plates per hour.

The camera can scan plates that enter its field of view whether the vehicle is parked or moving – even at high speed.

Once the image of the plate is captured, it is checked against databases for stolen vehicles and licence plates that are suspended, stolen or expired.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 3-12-2009 by GoneGrey]

I have mixed feelings about this. I've always felt a bit insulted by their Ride Check program because I'm a non-drinker. Do I want my licence plate arbitrarily checked, too? My gut feeling is that this is too Big Brother-like for my taste. This seems to be a new twist on that idea of screening everyone on the road to find "offenders".


[edit on 3-12-2009 by GoneGrey]

Yes, I think I have seen these on cruisers in massachusetts. They look like a radar gun, for speeders, which is what they could be also I guess, anyone know if we have these in the states, any ats coppers on here?

ANPR is commonplace in the UK, has been for years. There is nothing wrong with it in my opinion. The only people concerned are those who shouldn't be on the road in the first place. Those will be illegal drivers, those driving without a license or insurance, or those with outstanding warrants. Driving is a privilege, not a right, so there is zero issue here with civil liberties. Don't like it? Get a bus.

If you have nothing to hide, why worry about it? yeah right.

I just don't think it's right. IMO, cops shouldn't have a right to check anybody's property unless they have done something wrong.

Just another sign of the time that government eyes are upon us whether we warrant it or not.

reply to post by jam321


You do not own your license plate, it is not your property. Non argument.

Originally posted by fumanchu
ANPR is commonplace in the UK, has been for years. There is nothing wrong with it in my opinion. The only people concerned are those who shouldn't be on the road in the first place. Those will be illegal drivers, those driving without a license or insurance, or those with outstanding warrants. Driving is a privilege, not a right, so there is zero issue here with civil liberties. Don't like it? Get a bus.

I beg to differ!

The ANPR system has been proven to have been misused by the police to monitor the movements of innocent people. A case seen recently was a gentleman and his daughter who, having attended a peaceful anti-war protest, had their vehicle entered onto police databases. Then, on a drive into London they were stopped by armed police and questioned under anti-terrorism laws. The upshot was that a police ANPR system picked up their vehicle which was on the police databases under terrorism suspects, hence the stop by armed police units.
When the UK data registrar was questioned about this, as an example, he freely admitted that the ANPR systems and their use were outside of his departments control and to go speak to the home office.

So yes, on the one hand it can be useful in getting unlicensed or uninsured drivers off the roads, but can also be misused in the deliberate intimidation of innocent people, who indeed have done nothing wrong but are targeted anyway merely for protesting.

Originally posted by fumanchu
reply to post by jam321

 

You do not own your license plate, it is not your property. Non argument.

oh yes. But you still have to pay for it!

And keep it clean.

reply to post by fumanchu


If you believe it is ok for the police to check any random person for no apparent reason, then so be it.

Keep on believing that they are merely looking for people with expired tags, insurance, etc.

Working Link:
www.thestar.com...

They are doing it in the Netherlands and Germany as well. In the Netherlands they search for people with revenue debts and impound their car if detected.

What is the worst of many things wrong with these kinds of intrussive and proactive code enforcement measures (notice I did not say LAW) is they tend to target and penalize the working poor the most.

These kinds of code infractions are most often committed by people living paycheck to paycheck struggling to maintain roofs and sustinance for growing families already burdened by the often high fees associated with registration and renewals.

The fines just add to their economic hardship and the fines are designed to be more as a source of filling state coffers than a punitive damage.

Here in the states it's common for poor people who can't afford to pay 150 fine to be assigned 40 hours of community service, which when you break it down isn't even minimum wage.

Don't kid yourself the governments do this to make money not keep you or me safer.

If you are one of those lucky people who can afford to keep pace with the varied and high cost of living it's easy to condemn those people who can't.

Me I ride a bicycle because I won't give the state, insurance companies, oil companies, or toll authorities one plug nickel of my money to get from point a to point b on an earth no one really owns but just claims too.

But hey if you think you or your government own a little slice of it, try taking it with you when you go! Good luck on that!

Another money maker for the corporations. Pure and simple... any way they can con a dollar out of you.

[edit on 3-12-2009 by SeeingBlue]

Originally posted by jam321
If you have nothing to hide, why worry about it?

yeah right.

I just don't think it's right. IMO, cops shouldn't have a right to check anybody's property unless they have done something wrong.

Just another sign of the time that government eyes are upon us whether we warrant it or not.

I can see where people may think that "cops shouldn't have the righ to check anybody's property unless they have done something wrong."

There is just one small problem I have with that logic, though. What if that "something wrong" was a hit and run that left a crippled body or a dead one for that matter? The liscence plate could have been noted on the scene by witnesses and this scanner could bring that person to justice whereas the "wait and see" tactic will have mixed results. More people could possibly get hurt.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler

Here in the states it's common for poor people who can't afford to pay 150 fine to be assigned 40 hours of community service, which when you break it down isn't even minimum wage.

This is how some businesses get FREE LABOR! It's a good scam they have going. I once had a DUI kid come and ask if he could work for me for his community service. I said no, I am not a non-profit.

Later, I heard that many businesses do something to get on this list to get free laborers from CS. But I do not know this for sure...it was only hearsay. I do not know the details. Maybe some of you know.

If this is true, I can see where it would be incentive for a "victim/labor drive" by big business and favors owed. It goes much deeper into the system than just the cop on the street.








[edit on 3-12-2009 by Alethea]

Here's the solution to these "special cameras":

www.phantomplate.com...

Its just a license plate... As soon as you register your car or get a drivers license you are volunteering your information for placement in a database.

You wanna stay off the grid? Buy a bike... in cash (but no twenties)

reply to post by fumanchu


Your absolutely right, I was caught by one last year in Wales, speeding by 2 MPH over, going downhill round a bend, we where camping at the time, and the ticket was waiting for me when we got home, had to attend a 3 hour class in Wales, and pay £60, or £60 and 3 points, opted for the class, Wales has a zero tolerance on speeding, where as other places in the UK allow as much as 6 MPH over.

I agree with the idea of catching the No license, no Tax, no Insurance people, I have noticed that road deaths have dropped since the policy was introduced, people on the road illegally, just don't give a crap for other road users, speeding around jumping lights, even deliberately hitting your car, because they cant be traced, because they haven't registered in their name.

But yes it has been abused and used for the wrong reasons, but they would do it anyway even if they didn't do it in the open, they would do it out of sight, in the open is better IMO.

We all want law and order, but don't want to personally take part, and that is the problem, I am of the if you have nothing to hide, then why worry camp, I don't like being watched everywhere I go, but at the same time, I am not important enough to be watched, and would never think I was, I have nothing to hide from anyone, if I want to protest, then I will even if they have cameras there, that's the whole point.

I do believe they are taking it too far however with the new average speed cameras, where they have one camera at one end of a road, and another at the other end, and average your speed through that stretch of road.

But if your a Criminal, hurting others, then yes I am all for it, I want you stopped and arrested, just for my Families sake, the Criminals have got away with crap for too long, running their drugs everywhere, stealing cars and other peoples property, Burglars often use stolen cars, usually taken with violence now because of technology preventing them using anything but the proper keys.

So we either want protection and a crime free society, or we don't, but the way some act on here, you think the whole budget given for these projects, was there just to watch them, which is soooo not the case, I would think most of you are not even on the list, they have bigger fish to fry.

This started in Texas a few months or so back. Their findings during the test period were over 1/3 of automobiles had no insurance. I'll see if I can find the old article and post it later.

What is silly to me is that I'm insured in all passenger vehicles I drive, when I drive different ones; so how do they know? They are checking the automobile, not the driver.

I wonder how this falls under the auspices inside facts or evidence that would make a reasonable person believe that a crime or wrong doing has been, is being, or will be committed. Checking autos and not persons….

In the end it could be catch-22 as well. Random checks are indeed random, if they weren’t it would be considered “profiling” to most…

I don’t have an issue with metal detectors in buildings, x-raying my bags prior to boarding a plane, checking my ID at gated entry areas… Hell I went into a hospital in Baytown, Texas, to visit an ill relative and they took my ID to run a criminal check on me right in front of me…traffic warrants etal. “New Policy” notices everywhere. Three officers were at the check-in area. I didn’t care but all I thought was, “all this visit a relative in a private hospital…what if there is a computer/human error?” Shades of things to come…..

Interesting to see how this will play-out internationally as well as domestically.


mg

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by fumanchu

 

If you believe it is ok for the police to check any random person for no apparent reason, then so be it.

Keep on believing that they are merely looking for people with expired tags, insurance, etc.

But that is exactly what they are doing, unless you have any evidence to the contrary. When a vehicle's plate is scanned, related records are checked, such as who the vehicle is registered to, if it has valid tags/tax, if the registered driver has a valid permit to operate the vehicle they are driving, and if they have insurance. All of these are legal requirements people accept when they decide to get behind the wheel of a car. It is the law. The job of the police is to enforce the law. As I stated previously, you have no god given right to drive, you accept certain terms in doing so, and those are that you follow the rules set out by law. You cannot cry about the police doing their job. How else are they to ensure those driving are doing so legally? You want checkpoint every few miles? Or are you suggesting people should be able to ignore the law?

reply to post by azzllin


I was also stopped for driving without a license or insurance, and I was subsequently banned for doing so, and rightly so. Like you I'm not sitting here whining about not being able to skirt round the law. Unfortunately, common sense seems to be rather thin on the ground round here. This isn't a random stop and search "inconvenience" that actually might infringe on people's civil liberties.


reply to post by Britguy


If the system is being abused, deal with the abuse. What you do not do is throw the baby out with the bath water. This method has been proven to reduce the amount of illegal drivers on the road, I know, I'm one of them, so it works.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler

Me I ride a bicycle because I won't give the state, insurance companies, oil companies, or toll authorities one plug nickel of my money to get from point a to point b on an earth no one really owns but just claims too.

Choice, it's a wonderful thing is it not? You chose to ride a bicycle to avoid all these issues. I chose not to drive illegally because I do not want to spend lots of money on a car only to get 1/2 a mile down the road and be stopped for not having a license or insurance. I'd rather not have my car crushed and a hefty fine for choosing to ignore the law. See how it works? Simple yet brilliant.



[edit on 3-12-2009 by fumanchu]