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National Car Tracking System Proposed For US

bl968 writes "The Newspaper is reporting that the leading private traffic enforcement camera vendors are seeking to establish a national vehicle tracking system in the United States using existing red-light and speed enforcement cameras. The system would utilize Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to track vehicles passing surveillance cameras operated by these companies. If there are cameras positioned correctly the company will enable images and video to be taken of the driver and passengers. The nice thing in their view is that absolutely no warrants are needed. To gain public acceptance, the surveillance program is being initially sold as an aid for police looking to solve Amber Alert cases and locate stolen cars."

20 of 563 comments (clear)

  1. I'm all for it by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    I cannot possibly foresee a way that this could be turned against the public in some horrific Orwellian fashion.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:I'm all for it by halcyon1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm going to build motorized, retractable cover for my front license plate if this system is implimented. Fuck that.

      Jeeze, if you're going to buck the system, why not go all the way and fuck up the system? Don't just hide your plate. Make it work for you.

      Take a ride past your local police parking lot, and jot down two or three license plate numbers. Then use a good quality laser printer and make yourself some copies of those "plates". With luck they'll never notice they're effectively tracking themselves

      Or heck, just copy ANY plate(s). Randomly switch them around. The system will think cars are vanishing and reappearing all over the place. Or maybe you'll get even luckier, and it will snap a shot of two of the same plates at the same time, and cause a referential integrity error in the system, crashing it.

      The minute the implement random manual spot checks by humans to ensure the integrity of the data, slap a Goatse on your plate. You should burn out the employees pretty quickly with that one.

      Whatever you do, be creative. The more you can clog the system with crap, the lower their cost:profit^H^H^H public safety ratio goes down. Make it hit a critical point, and the system will be abandoned.

    2. Re:I'm all for it by turtledawn · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's a car in Pike Country, Kentucky that actually has Goatse as the personalized plate. I saw it here in Lexington- I'm assuming a college student, but who knows. I have never before actually considered reporting a personalized plate for vulgarity, but I was so distraught that I missed my turn and had to go around the block because of it. Horrifying, I tell you.

      --
      Uh, "if it looks roughly mouse-shaped according to my infra-red sensitive pit, eat it"? --Chris Burke 09-08-10
    3. Re:I'm all for it by rudeboy1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Personally, I think I'm going to pay the extra money for a vanity tag, and solve everyone's problem the first time I'm scanned.

      --
      Raging in an online forum won't do anything for the world around you. To see change, you must take action.
    4. Re:I'm all for it by scorp1us · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why not just chip the kid, then you know where the kid is and can eliminate the expensive traffic system that will only be effective 1% of the time.

      I think chipping kids until 18 is a good idea. After that, leave the decision up to them to get it out.

      This way, they can't use the "zomgthingkofthechildren" excuse.

      --
      Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    5. Re:I'm all for it by StikyPad · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hmm.. people modded you funny, but I've suggested the same thing to my S/O.. They have them in pets, why not in kids? Of course, we'd have to establish some sort of agency that went around collecting stray kids and checking them for chips before destroying them, but I find that an acceptable compromise.

    6. Re:I'm all for it by Leebert · · Score: 4, Funny

      ust look at all the hassle we have to go through at the airports because some British nutjob tried to blow up a home-made shoe bomb.

      Yes. I'm sick of removing my shoes. Why, oh why couldn't the shoe bomber have been a bra bomber?

    7. Re:I'm all for it by Legion_SB · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or, for that matter, getting drivers to pay attention to the road and stop running over the kids.

      Not paying attention to road signs isn't the reason I run over children.

      --
      'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
    8. Re:I'm all for it by toddestan · · Score: 4, Funny

      I was so distraught that I missed my turn and had to go around the block because of it. Horrifying, I tell you.

      Well, at least you didn't rear end him.

  2. Dude, by IceCreamGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where's everybody's car?

  3. This is America by Kreigaffe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't expect to see this go anywhere, not for a long time at least.

    On this side of the pond.

    To my friends in the UK, I'm so terribly sorry. I'm assuming you will have this technology installed and in full swing by next Tuesday.

    --
    ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
  4. minor case of dyslexia by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Funny

    ATS likewise is promoting motorist tracking technologies. In a recent proposal to operate 200 speed cameras for the Arizona state police, the company explained that its ticketing cameras could be integrated into a national vehicle tracking database. This would allow a police officer to simply enter a license plate number into a laptop computer and receive an email as soon as a speed camera anywhere in the state recognized that plate.

    - in a Freudian slip, I misread this:

    cameras for the Arizona state police,

    to be this:

    cameras for the Arizona police state,

    and I am serious, it took me reading the sentence 2 more times to understand that it was written the other way around. And after I read it correctly I thought that the authors must have made a mistake.

  5. So Steve Jobs really *is* prescient? by Sierran · · Score: 2, Funny

    Obviously not content to rely on his reality distortion field, Steve Jobs now looks to be even more forward-thinking than his press would have you believe.

    --
    A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
  6. Re:Inductive sensors by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is my Civic.

    There are many like it, but this one is MINE.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  7. Re:Inductive sensors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Probably by the spoiler you riveted on, you damn ricer.

  8. Re:Inductive sensors by Lobster+Quadrille · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess they could require you to attach some kind of placard to the back of your car with a unique combination of numbers and letters on it....

    I dunno though, the logistics of doing that kind of thing on a large scale are pretty limiting.

    --
    "The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
  9. Re:Inductive sensors by pwizard2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's easier to just put RFID chips in license plates and install sensors on the side of the road. They will do this eventually.

    That will eventually give rise to tinfoil body kits.

    --
    "It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
  10. Re:Inductive sensors by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Funny

    then attach the placard with screws that can be easily adjusted in a parking lot. in case you need to swap placards quickly, for example while escaping from the police.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  11. Re:One layer of indirection by Manfre · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a great idea! Definitely better than not running a red light.

  12. Re:This could help with many problems by Nazlfrag · · Score: 2, Funny

    A loan from China probably.