NYPD Anti-Terrorism Cameras Used For Much More

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from the NY Times: "The Police Department's growing web of license-plate-reading cameras has been transforming investigative work. Though the imaging technology was conceived primarily as a counterterrorism tool, the cameras' presence — all those sets of watchful eyes that never seem to blink — has aided in all sorts of traditional criminal investigations. ... 'We knew going into it that they would have other obvious benefits,' Mr. Browne said about the use of the readers in the initiative. 'Obviously, conventional crime is far more common than terrorism, so it is not surprising that they would have benefits, more frequently, in conventional crime fighting than in terrorism.'"

Comments

a.k.a. "Cops No Longer Looking At License Plates"

[Broofa]

The Law of Unintended Consequences will probably come into play here. As camera systems - especially ones mounted on cop cars - get better at reading license plates, law enforcement officers will probably come to rely on them more. I.e. they'll pay less attention to your plates. So one conclusion that might be draw from this is that if you hide/obfuscate your plates, you're more likely to get away with it.

/me grabs a handful of mud and slings it at his plates to hide the expired registration tags.

Roadway Travel is Public Info

[Kamiza Ikioi]

SCOTUS ruled that use of public roadways is public knowledge and legal without a warrant, including the use of GPS tracking units on your "private" vehicle. Their ruling is that when driving on a public roadway, there is absolutely no expectation of privacy as to your travelling. Now, searching inside the vehicle, that's a different question. And what if the camera takes a picture through your windows? That's as allowed as an officer looking in your window. The court seems to say that, police are allowed to use humans to track all public movements, so they see no difference between having 5 million police standing on corners writing down license plates or 5 million cameras doing the same thing.

Re:Roadway Travel is Public Info

[ep32g79]

SCOTUS ruled that use of public roadways is public knowledge and legal without a warrant, including the use of GPS tracking units on your "private" vehicle. Their ruling is that when driving on a public roadway, there is absolutely no expectation of privacy as to your travelling.

Nope, SCOTUS has never ruled on the requirement or lack there of in obtaining a warrant to utilize a GPS tracking device on a private vehicle. More specifically, the circuit courts are split on this topic with the D.C Circuit court in Commonwealth v. Connolly mandating a warrant and the Ninth in USA v. Juan Pineda-Moreno writing carte-blanche to track anyone anywhere.
But perhaps you are confused with USA v. Knotts in that SCOTUS did decided that the monitoring of a pager embed in a barrel of chemicals that the defendant was using to manufacture methanphetamines was A-ok. The DC courts did take this SCOTUS decision into account and came back with a decision that a pager was only good for a day or two max, but the GPS machines could last for months.

Now, searching inside the vehicle, that's a different question. And what if the camera takes a picture through your windows?

Yes, indeed a search of a vehicle is a different topic all together. However, the plain view doctrine would most definitely allow pictures that reveal the contents of your vehicle from a vantage point outside into the court of law.

Re:4th Amendment?

[davev2.0]

Neither you or your vehicle is being searched. Your vehicle is in plain sight. It is being observed in a specific location, just as if a police car drove past it and the officer noted it.

statistics on the threat of terrorism

[FudRucker]

After 9/11, the fear of another attack on U.S. soil cleanly supplanted the fear of having one`s penis chopped off by a vengeful lover in the pantheon of irrational American fears.

While we`re constantly being told that another attack is imminent and that radical Islamic fundamentalists are two steps away from establishing a caliphate in Branson, Missouri, just how close are they? How do the odds of dying in a terrorist attack stack up against the odds of dying in other unfortunate situations?

The following ratios were compiled using data from 2004 National Safety Council Estimates, a report based on data from The National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 2003 mortality data from the Center for Disease Control was used.

You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

You are 11,000 times more likely to die from a misdiagnosed medical condition or botched surgery by an incompetent doctor or misuse of perscription drugs than a terrorist attack

You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack

You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack

You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack

You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack

You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack

You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack

You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack

You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack