More on ALPR

Two stories that came out in the last week which provide additional information as to how ALPR is currently used.  This should be seen as the starting point for this technology.  Naturally the data collection points and data history will only grow over time:

• GPS data is captured along with the license plate information and stored for long periods of time.  At least several months.  This story shows that government officials are able to enter a license plate and find out where that plate has been over a long stretch of time.  No warrant is needed as the information is publicly available (with the exception of the DMV information that is linked to the plate).
• This article shows that outstanding warrant information of the vehicle's owner is also tagged to licensee plates.  This allows police to get alerted with a plate, owned by someone with an outstanding warrant, is nearby.  Does this provide probable cause for a traffic stop?  Hard to say.  In the article, police are able to see the driver and confirm that they are not the person wanted for a warrant (normally this would be difficult while following a vehicle).  But interestingly, they stop the vehicle anyway for a traffic violation.

Most people don't have a problem with criminals being caught by this technology.  But mark my words, this technology is in the public domain and private companies will take advantage of this at some point.  If a police officer doesn't need a warrant to collect this public information, what's to stop Google/Microsoft/political parties?  And while these public organizations don't have access to DMV records (at least, not easily), they do have access to property records.  What's to stop them from driving through residential neighborhoods to collect plate information along with home address information?  With a database of address/property owners, they would be able to make an educated guess as to who 60% of the plates belong to.  They'll also be able to map out who knows who.

Just like Facebook, except you won't have the option not to join.

ALPR - The all seeing eye of Big Brother

On November 8th, the US Supreme Court is set to hear a case which will determine whether or not police need a warrant to install a GPS tracking device on a vehicle.  The case will certainly be getting a lot more attention in the next few months due to its ability to change how the government views the 4th amendment.

But behind the scenes, technology is making GPS tracking of vehicles obsolete.  Automated License Plate Recognition (or ALPR or ANPR - Automated Number Plate Recognition).  It is sweeping the law enforcement world by storm.   In the United States, many police departments have outfitted patrol cars with ALPR systems, mostly funded by anti-terrorism grants.  So what does it do?  Well as the name implies, it automatically captures, records and checks license plates against a database and it can do so in huge numbers and with no intervention by police.  When the ALPR system finds a plate that is associated with a stolen vehicle or an outstanding warrant, the system alerts the officer and provides information on the vehicle and warrant.

On the surface, this seems like a great technology.  Police cars can rove the streets/parking lots and with little effort uncover any criminals who were stupid enough to drive around.  But like most technology, it will have unintended consequences.  The biggest one is that as ALPR becomes more popular, it will become easier and easier to track any particular individual's movement.   As the plate information is publicly visible on public streets, it's virtually immune from any 4th amendment challenge.  More cities are also installing ALPR systems at intersections in addition to patrol cars.  So the net effect will be that police will have the ability to determine not only where you and your car are at any given time, it will also (through the use of historical databases) allow them to see what any particular person's driving patterns are.    Effectively, this will make GPS tracking of vehicles unnecessary, at least in medium to large cities.

And as all of the technology that makes ALPR work is already in the public domain, it won't be long before the private sector makes use of it as well.  It's not hard to imagine that personal ALPR systems might be available in the future, allowing users to monitor patters of drivers though group-sourced traffic applications like Waze.

Imagine if a private company were able to capture license plate information along with travel patterns (where you live, work, drive). As of now, the government controls DMV information and most states make it very hard to get.  These private companies could offer this to you as well and as it's publicly visible information, it would be difficult to stop.  It would be a stalker's dream.

D.C. Ends Vehicle Inspections - But Is The Joke On You?

D.C. has announced that starting October 1, 2009, they will no longer require vehicle owners to get an annual inspection. This was announced as a budget reduction , allegedly saving the district some $400,000 per year.

Of course, the paranoid in me immediately questions how the People's Republic of D.C. could ever give up this control and revenue stream. Why wouldn't they just increase the inspection sticker price? Seems a bit out of place, doesn't it?? Unless....

Unless it gives them more control. Is it possible, that after October 1, 2009, a D.C. Police officer can pull you over for no obvious violation but instead do it under the cloak of a 'roadside inspection'? Am I really that paranoid? Yes.

Before you judge, consider that this surprise inspection cancellation announcement comes just 65 days after D.C.'s plan of setting up roadside checkpoints in certain high crime neighborhoods was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court. So D.C. can no longer roadblock whole neighborhoods, but perhaps they will now just set up vehicle inspection programs? Perhaps setting up shop in certain neighborhoods? Yes, that makes it all fit together nicely.

We'll see...

Cool Software For Your Cellphone (...that also threatens corruption, evil and oppression everywhere)

Qik is a website and a free application for your cellphone. The application installs on your phone (Blackberry for example) and allows you to one-click record video using your camera's built in video camera. What's cool about Qik is that it simultaneously uploads your video to your own personal Qik web page. Apparently you can also stream live video from your cell phone too, but the part that caught my eye was the fact that it records (saves) your video in real time on a remote server.

Keeping in mind my previous post of the dangers of the police state, Qik is a new threat to the corrupt. One of the problems with being on the scene or being arrested, for example, is that your camera/recorder etc will be seized and then possibly lost/erased etc. Qik renders the physical confiscation of the camera irrelevant. By the time the camera is taken, the video is on the Internet, and the gene is out of the bottle.

You Know It's A Crazy, Mixed Up World

When one of the primary tools of a police state, surveillance, comes back to haunt the police. In the last few weeks, I've seen a couple of stories that highlight the new danger police face: Someone is almost always watching you.

We first really saw its power in the Rodney King case, but now surveillance cameras (aka "security cameras") are becoming ubiquitous. It's getting to the point where a corrupt cop can't even go about his/her business without having to deal with perjury charges. Take for example these two recent cases:

• Drug suspects’ defense against NYPD? Video
• Accused of lying, officer suspended
• Surveillance video shows police beating man in elevator (more on this one "But after seeing the video obtained by Ortiz's defense attorney, Stephen Melnick, prosecutors downgraded the charge to a misdemeanor resisting charge. Upon further review, prosecutors dropped the case entirely". And of course the kicker: "Fort Lauderdale police internal affairs investigators reviewed the incident more than a month ago and found no violations of policy or procedures, said Sgt. Frank Sousa, the department's spokesman."

So how is it going to be fixed? Your guess is as good as mine. For the hand-held camera, we have already seen that police are very willing to arrest the camera-man for interfering with 'police business'. However, stationary cameras present a unique problem. I think maybe we'll see a wave of Security Camera Legislation requiring a lengthy process to get a permit from the police to use a security camera. But until then, I'm sure these stories will just keep on rolling in.

Prince George's County Police Handle Another Case "Properly"

This one is all over the news (and now on Drudge), but in case you haven't heard, Prince George's County (Maryland) Police basically broke into a town mayor's house, shot his dogs, cuffed his wife and mother-in-law, and then realized they made a mistake. Apparently the 'mistake' was doing this to the mayor and not doing this to some poor inner-city minority. I say that because as the details are coming out, it appears the Police knew the mayor had done nothing wrong (and was a hapless pawn in a drug distribution scheme), but still insisted on bursting through his door, ninja-style just for kicks. Oh, and the warrant they had was not a no-knock warrant, but that's what they did anyway. "Warrant? We don't need no stinkin' warrant"

Don't hold your breath for something like justice to happen either. PG County is notorious for this sort of thing. Apparently killing family pets is part of their Standard Operating Procedures. That's done little to stem the abuse.

DNA Science May Be Flawless, But Lab Workers Are Not

A frightening case from Australia: A man convicted of murdering a mother and then raping and murdering her young daughter in 1984 was exonerated because police realized that a sample of the man's DNA (obtained elsewhere) had been accidentally mixed with DNA from the crime scene. Now Australian police will reexamine over 7,000 convictions where DNA evidence was used to see if there were other errors. What do you want to bet this is not just an Australian problem?