Gotten from VWVortex.com
Some cops in NJ have some kind of optical license plate reader in their cars. Its attached to a computer in the car. They can read 3 plates at a time as the car goes by and it automatically just goes and pulls your record. If you are driving while on probation, no insurance, whatever you are dead meat. The computer logs you and tells the cop to go and pull you over. Nasty stuff. Just like big brother.

Do a search on ANPR - Automatic Number Plate Recognition.

Happened to a woman friend last year. She was driving with no insurance. Got popped and continued driving. The second time the computer caught her while on the highway. Flagged her as being suspended and driving. Lost her license for over a year for no insurance. Very, very stupid on her part but hey...

I saw them pull over a guy in a Caddy last week. The copy was sitting on the side of the road scanning all the cars as they went by. I saw he had the computer running. All of a sudden I saw him pull out, he zoomed around me and pulled over the guy in front of me. The guy didnt do anything but he must have had a problem of some kind. Pulled him over and it was over...

 

There's a good side to this, though, too.

Too many people are on the roads with suspended or revoked licenses, and worse, getting away with it. A drivers' license means little or nothing if one can just thumb their nose at it and drive indiscriminately with or without one. I don't ALWAYS support the cops, but sometimes you gotta just let them do their jobs and give them the tools to help them do those jobs.

 

Resistance is futile. The police are going to get MORE tools rapidly.

Wait until the car itself reports the violation. Travelling 90+, excessive g-force loads, biometric authentication to drive the car which can then do a background check itself... think of driving like a "transaction" - no valid credentials? No driving.

Think this is all science fiction or fantasy?

I've written about it, talked about it, posted about it... but we are heading toward a near future where many crimes and violations will be impossible to commit without being caught.

 

I completely agree with mmarshall. Although there aren't many "new" police technologies I'm too fond of, this is definitely one that I wish every department had. Here in California this type of thing is a real problem. I'd gladly pay an extra 5 cents on my taxes to help put this technology in every patrol car.

 

The number of people driving around without insurance, or registration, or a license, is MASSIVE. It is a HUGE drain on those who DO have these things. Law abiding citizens have to get uninsured motorist coverage and pay higher registration and license fees because of those who don't pay.

 

However, if authorities get too complacent with using modern technology, I am sure technology is going to come back to hit them. That is the whole reason antiviruses and spyware came up with computers. I am sure someone will find a way to jam this stuff, too.

 

This "Big Brother" phrase is being used ENTIRELY too much... If you are driving ILLEGALY then you deserved to get popped. I'm pretty sure that this can work as well if the car is listed as stolen. If that is indeed the case... I'm almost positive that orginal writter of this story would probably be thanking the police rather than calling them "big brother" if it was his car that was stolen.

 

Looks like it's time for me to start driving a rented car instead.






















j/k...This is some very cool use of the latest optical character recognition technologies.

 

You trying to tell us something?

 

It won't help and you know it. Sooner or later the police system will see the car is rented and just query the car rental service and bring up YOU on screen and your driving record.

Resistance is futile.

 

That sounds pretty sweet. I would much rather have cops pulling over people with out a license / insurace / have warrants, than trying to catch me hauling @$$ down the freeway. I wonder if the income for the government is better for these cases vs. speeders???

 

I agree that this is a huge problem in CA. If this new technology keeps the uninsured people off the roads, I am all for it. Im sure everyone is tired of paying higher insurance premiums to have coverage against uninsured drivers.

 

This technology isn't that new. The technology was born out of finding stolen vehicles many years ago in areas that had rampant car theft problems. The system would ONLY go off if the patrol car passed by a parked vehicle which was registered as stolen.

Back then, the mantra was, "We only pull the records of the vehicle if the plates matches in the stolen vehicle database."

Those of us smart enough knew it would be sooner than later that it would just end up being tied to each respective area's DMV DB outside of the stolen vehicle DB and used for more "aggressive" infractions.

Cheers,
Kermee

 

Well even though most dont' have nothing to hide, as in safe people/drivers, I don't want every damn cop pulling my plates every time I pass them.

HELLO CONSTITUTION!!!!

 

not sure what the constitution has to do with this, your license plate on a public street is considered public domain and anyone can take a scan/picture of it if they wanted even cops

I think this applied tech is neat, and will help officers a lot