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Tuesday, January 06, 2015

License Plate Trackers Send Passenger Photos to Police Databases

The establishment will likely continue construction of the surveillance apparatus until the entire country is being watched...

Every day, the power of the police (and their federal financiers) to track the movements of every American expands.

The latest loss of liberty involves the ability of license plate tracking software to recognize the faces of individual travelers in target vehicles.

A company called ElsaAG North America (a division of Finmeccanica, an Italian defense, aerospace, and security conglomerate) has developed automatic license plate readers (ALPR) and is aggressively marketing its high-tech trackers to U.S. law enforcement. Vigilant Solutions, another ALPR manufacturer, boasts of being a “trusted provider to tens of thousands of law enforcement professionals.” The Vigilant database reportedly “contains 2 billion entries,” with “70 million additional license plate photographs being added each month.”
Lest anyone doubt the scope and power of these tracking technologies, consider the following description of one of Vigilant’s latest products, the Mobile Companion:




Vigilant Solutions’ Mobile Companion is an industry-exclusive mobile app delivering the benefits of Vigilant’s Intelligence-Led Policing Package (including license plate recognition (LPR) and facial recognition technologies) to your mobile device.

The Mobile Companion is available to every officer with a mobile device and proper user permissions, as set by an Agency Manager. With the Mobile Companion, officers are now able to scan license plates, match against agency hotlists, query historical data, use the exclusive Mobile Hit Hunter feature to locate nearby hits generated by the Vigilant LPR network, and verify identities in the field using facial recognition. [Emphasis added.]

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7 comments:

lmclain said...

Keep cheering.
That crunching sound you hear is the Constitution being crumpled under the boot heels of those who think that document is merely "suggestions" and not LAW.
People who believe they are above the laws that govern you and me.
People who think that you and I need to be watched all the time because we could, at ANY MOMENT, become a 'terrorist'.
People who know there is no good ending to what they have created and nurtured, but don't think the consequences will ever reach them.
Woe unto them.....

Anonymous said...

Illegal searches! Cops need probable cause to runs tags and identification! Until last week. That's when you silently lost your fourth amendment rights.

Anonymous said...

I imagine Kim Jong Un in North Korea made a bundle when he sold us this technology. What was Obama and Holder's cut?

Anonymous said...

wrong 3:28 Police do not need any reason to run a tag.

Anonymous said...

They need no reason to stop a truck and inspect it,truck drivers have no rights whatsoever thanks to lawmakers.

Anonymous said...

Thanks officer but my arse doesn't smoke.

Anonymous said...

This stuff is real.
I had been stopped, maybe, three times in my entire 25 years of driving, until about 8 weeks ago.
About two months ago, I was stopped three times in less than 12 days. ("Wheels touching the white line", "Not using a turn signal" (I was in a turn lane with a signal at 5AM in the morning - no traffic!); and this one: "Sorry sir, it looked like you didn't have your seat belt properly worn. My mistake. May I see your license...?" etc.
My license had been expired due to an error (mine)... What a coincidence that I was constantly pulled over!