The technology known as automatic licence plate recognition systems, or ALPR devices continue to spread across the state. [Read more…] about License Plate Readers Deployed by Police in Perth Amboy
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More License Plate Scanners in NJ
Deployment of new police surveillance equipment like license plate scanners are rolled out with regularity, and civil liberties and privacy concerns are rarely addressed or considered.
So it is with another announcement of a local New Jersey law enforcement agency using these systems, this time in Mt. Laurel. From the article:
An ALPR can be likened to the town watch concept, adding extra eyes in the community to assist law enforcement who have a responsibility to enforce laws and apprehend criminals.
Comparing it to a friendly neighborhood watch, is one way to look at it. Another way is to suggest that it is a massively intrusive big brother collecting and scanning the location and movements of all citizens, regardless of any accusation of a crime or due process.
And that data, where your car was located, what time, near or with whom, it all logged and stored indefinitely in nationwide databases, where it can be matched with data from other law enforcement sources, to retroactively track your movements.
There is little to no oversight as to what law enforcement or government officials are able to use this information, and for what purpose.
But the surveillance state appears to be here for good, privacy be damned.
Licence Plate Scanners in South Jersey Noticed
Someone at the Philly Post noticed how the high tech surveillance crimefighting techniques are actually a bit creepy, referencing a new report about how a Evesham police cruiser tagged a man’s car who had an open warrant for burglary.
We’ve been talking about this surveillance stuff for a while now, maybe the awareness is really catching on.
Yes, they are scanning all of us. And yes, it is quite creepy. [Read more…] about Licence Plate Scanners in South Jersey Noticed
High-Crime Camden To Get Street Corner Cameras
Ignoring costs and a strapped budget, the city of Camden will be installing a $1.8 million “Eye In The Sky” system of cameras over the next few months. In a city whose crime rate is nationally known, the cameras are seen as one more tool to throw at the problem. The issue with this is that the effectiveness of such cameras in reducing crime is highly questionable. [Read more…] about High-Crime Camden To Get Street Corner Cameras
License Plate Scanners in Nutley & More Police Surveillance
Another insightful story on automatic license plate scanners, this time in use in Nutley. Every story gives a little more insight into how broadly these systems are being used to track people. According to NorthJersey.com, after a year of use, Nutley has “recorded and stored the information for 675,000 license plates which led to 13,000 hits”. The types of hits recorded include stolen vehicles, and expired registrations. The article also acknowledges that the system gets data hits for possible suspended licenses and outstanding warrants by the registered owner.
This particular system Nutley uses is the PAGIS, or Police ALPR Graphical Interface System. It was jointly developed by Pips Technology and Motorola.
The article also mentions the investigative uses of the passive data collected on non-hits, such as information on where a car has been, matching photographic evidence, location, and time data in conjunction with witness information. So for example, if a witness suggests that a suspicious vehicle is parked outside a building every night at 10pm, the police can review the data to see if that information was also captured by the license place scanner.
This is the kind of ominous data collection and analysis that the government is capable of. These abilities will only get stronger as more systems are used, and more data is collected, merged, and shared. We write often about these government surveillance capabilities often here.
The Pips Technology site also goes into some detail about the data mining capabilities of these systems. It is a strong selling point of the systems, and from the North Jersey.com story, you can tell that police naturally love the access to all this information. No doubt it extends the ability of them to do there jobs.
But the question is at what cost to citizen’s freedom, and civil liberties? This kind of governmental surveillance power used capriciously or menacingly is an obvious threat to a free nation.
We should be having this discussion as a people before the surveillance state gets further entrenched in our daily lives.