They’ll Be Watching You
With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles. … The District [of Columbia] … has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well … creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District. … Police can also plug any license plate number into the database and, as long as it passed a camera, determine where that vehicle has been and when. …
The District’s … officers make an average of an arrest a day directly from the plate readers. … There are no laws governing how or when Washington area police can use the tag reader technology. … 37 percent of large police agencies in the United States now use license plate reader technology. (more; also)
This is via Robin Hanson, who adds:
Unless there is a public outcry, which seems unlikely at the moment, within twenty years most traffic intersections will probably have tag readers, neighboring jurisdictions will share databases, and so police will basically track all cars all the time. With this precedent, cameras that track pedestrians and people in cars via their faces and gaits will follow within another decade or two.
Every move you make,
Every breath you take
Wow! Why has this gotten so little attention?
Thanks for a great post. This is happening on multiple fronts. The State is closing in and to many don’t appreciate what is happening. Liberty lost is seldom regained.
Do we want police or a police state? Law enforcement or imposition? Bastiat in The Law discusses justice as the absence of injustice. Our liberty along with our very life and property rights are the first priority.
John, great posting. Not your usual topic but an alarm to be heeded.
This may sound far fetched, but maybe not. I recently read, I think in your neighbor state Louisiana, they banned cash use in some commerce, used metal market I believe. Since the nation uses fiat currency anyway, might the federal government impose a cashless society? Plastic only, debit or credit. Even foreign travelers would have to make this exchange on entry of their currency for plastic. This would allow government to tax the hell out of us and track everything we do. Regarding your area of health policy, imagine the behavior monitoring/modification in the name of the common good. The federal government and federal reserve could make the argument of all the cost they would save on coinage/printing and managing “cash”.
Dr. Steve
Scary post.
Within 50 years of the book 1984 the predictions will come to pass. At what point do we have to concede we live in a police state even if there isn’t a policeman on every corner but a camera instead?
@Dr. Steve
Interesting comments. This all reminds me of an article I read earlier this month about the “Big Brother” implications of a cashless society. The article is a little heavy on conspiracy theory, but a good read nonetheless (it’s from PrisonPlanet.com, which is Alex Jones’ news website):
http://www.prisonplanet.com/nj-transit-ushers-in-cashless-society-with-google-wallet-app-for-smartphone-payment.html
The article tells how the New Jersey and New York transit authorities have already put in place a Google wallet system through which passengers can purchase train or bus tickets. Google has created an application for smartphones that allows you to swipe your smartphone in front of a sensor and the purchase amount is deducted from your bank account, which is connected to the smartphone application. PayPal, AMEX and Visa have also jumped on the bandwagon and created similar apps.
It’s not difficult to see where the trend is heading. Technology has literally brought information to our fingertips, but when we use smartphone technologies such as GPS, web browsing, and location-based social networks, we give up our anonymity in exchange for the convenience.
Food for thought.
The untold side of this story is the facial recognition software used to analyze many of the video streams in Washington. Congress began appropriating money for this type of software way back before the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Amber and others,
Remember, just because one is paranoid does not mean they aren’t out to get you!
@Dr. Steve
Haha…too true!
I’m so glad this article got posted! I’ve been reading about this subject a lot lately. There is no question there are legitimate security concerns, especially when it comes to terrorism. But using complex surveillance matrices for preventing/tracking/solving ordinary crime is overbearing and erodes liberty. I can understand parts of Washington D.C. having high levels of surveillance, but outside of Washington, there is reason to be concerned.
I’ve read about the tracking of gait signatures as well. That will come in time, and the technology will likely be used in large entertainment/sporting venues among other places.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/ Here’s a similar article in Wired.
Hopefully there will be some court cases that put a stop to this, but unfortunately, this is the drawback to having great technology.
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