City quietly installs license plate readers at major intersection

[Earth_First]

Buffalo, NY

The city has quietly installed license plate readers above at least one intersection to help solve crimes. 

The city did not answer questions about the new equipment Monday, but a police source confirmed that the new equipment is there to capture license plate numbers. 

On Long Island earlier this month, lawmakers in the Town of Glen Cove approved the installation of license plate readers, but not without responding to privacy concerns from the public. 

The American Civil Liberties Union released a study in July that found that license plate captures had reached the millions nationwide, and when used in many locations, can create a picture of a driver’s daily routine. The study raised questions about how long police departments keep the information they collect about drivers not involved in crimes, how the information is used, and who has access to it.

http://mobile.buffalonews.com/?articleRedirect=1

[woo me with science]

1. Surveillance state neoAmerica.

Police state neoAmerica.

[RKP5637]

4. Big $$$$$'s for some, all of this surveillance, and who is watching those in control

of surveillance. ... we've seen in history where this takes us, as often said, history sadly repeats, lessons never learned.

[Earth_First]

8. There is most certainly that...

Additionally, in the case of Rochester, NY there is the issue of patrol officers being used in administrative rolls in order to monitor the large banks of cctv cameras, red light cameras, gunshot monitors and soon license plate readers, the justification towards installing this technology in the effort to curtail crime becomes dilluted.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Yeah. That'll never be abused. n/t

[joshcryer]

3. The UK would be proud.

[dipsydoodle]

5. We've had them in the UK for years now.

The London congestion charge , for example , started back in 2003 and that's how its controlled. They are also on some our motorways - exceed an average speed over the limit, which can be varied on certain sections but well sign posted, between cameras and there's a ticket in the post within minutes.

As far as I'm aware France was the first to use the readers on the toll sections of their Autoroutes. If you reached a toll booth too soon you paid the toll fee and a speeding ticket.

I've not come across any references here in the UK to the information being misused in anyway.

[B Calm]

7. I wouldn't loan my car out to a family member or friend!

[dipsydoodle]

9. I wouldn't do that anyway.

.

[RandiFan1290]

6. They've been in Palm Beach for a while now.

They gotta keep an eye on us dirty workers driving through their precious kingdoms on the beach.

[seveneyes]

10. You get the government you vote for

Big Brother is alive and well in Buffalo.

[jsr]

11. Another FU to taxpayers from surveillance fascists.

[pintobean]

12. We have them mounted on vehicles

driving down residential streets in St. Louis. I've seen them on my street twice in the last few months.

I'm sure it's for our own good.

[mopinko]

17. they do that here to hand out boots.

i don't have too much of a problem catching people breaking traffic laws with cameras, but just hoovering up license plates? um, no.

[Pholus]

13. Security "threats" lead to steady paychecks.

Nobody is numerically literate enough to interpret "cost per conviction = total cost of system/number of successes" anymore.

And for "security reasons" nobody wants to actually admit how just how small the "number of successes" is.

[delrem]

14. Interesting how technology forces a conversation about use/abuse.

[Orrex]

15. I'm amazed that these don't already exist at every major interestion in the US.

In the history of humankind, has there ever been a time when a government didn't make use of every available technology for surveillance?

This development is absolutely unsurprising and is entirely consistent with many centuries of precedent.

[pinboy3niner]

16. USC in L.A. installed LPRs on and around campus beginning in 2011

This recent USC Daily Trojan story is worth reading for more info on LPR use there and the university's relationship with the LAPD:

On-campus cameras scan and report license plates
By kate guarino · Daily Trojan

Posted September 15, 2013 at 6:14 pm in Featured, News


Big brother · A camera watches over Gate 5 on Jefferson Boulevard and McClintock Avenue. DPS has installed 14 new license plate recognition cameras on campus and in the surrounding area since January. – Nick Entin | Daily Trojan


This past January, the USC Dept. of Public Safety installed 14 new license plate recognition cameras on and around campus. Since then, the cameras have gotten more than 500 hits, reporting license plates of lost or stolen cars that are wanted in connection with a crime.

The cameras were installed as part of a multi-million dollar effort to enhance campus security measures. The new cameras work in tandem with 48 license plate readers that were installed in 2011 and 111 video patrol cameras, the first of which were installed in 2006.

“We strategically place them in the neighborhoods, and we also have them at every entrance to campus, so no car, theoretically, can come on or off campus without having their license plate scanned,” DPS Deputy Chief David Carlisle said.

The cameras scan every license plate that passes by them and run the numbers through a Department of Justice database, which determines if the license plate has been reported for any reason.

...


Through its partnership with USC, the LAPD has been able to make 36 LPR-related arrests since the original installation of the cameras in 2011, according to Carlisle.

...


http://dailytrojan.com/2013/09/15/on-campus-cameras-scan-and-report-license-plates/

[dotymed]

18. I still do not

believe in ceding privacy for a sense of security.

[greiner3]

19. At least in university areas;

One could 'disable them' by using the old trick of spray painting the lens, or ???????