Tech Wizardry or Big Brother?

The New Jersey State Police have a new gadget. It's called the Mobile Plate Hunter 900 and it's purpose is to scan license plates, identify the plate number, and run it through the FBI's National Crime Information Center and the New Jersey State Police database of every wanted person, stolen car, and expired registration. It consists of 2 cameras mounted at the base of the rear window tied into a computer in the trunk. The cameras are tuned to detect rectangular objects of a certain size with high contrast backgrounds and bold lettering. The technology is usable while cars are parked, or while they are traveling at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour, making it easy for a police cruiser to record the license plate of every vehicle that passes by while he's parked on the shoulder of a highway.

The Star Ledger watched a 20 minute demonstration of the device in the Macy's parking lot at the Bridgewater Commons Mall. In that short period the system scanned and recorded 1142 plate numbers and found 5 expired registrations. The article didn't say, but I'm assuming they wrote 5 tickets since the fine for an expired registration is easy money for the municipality.

My biggest concern is with the "recorded" part. If it scans the plate, finds no hits in the databases, and then discards the information, that would be OK. But, it sounds like it keeps its own database of each plate scanned. Tie the system into the DMV and they've got access to the home addresses of 1142 people who are currently at the mall.

The technical specs on the manufacturer's website are password-protected (that is, the specs are supplied on a "need to know" basis and they think we don't need to know). But, this account of the system's use in Poughkeepsie, NY seems to bear out my belief that the system retains all the license plate numbers it scans.

Reading between the lines it's pretty clear they used a database of license plates recorded around the town to find all the places where the defendant's car was scanned. The fact that a database of license plate numbers, locations, and time stamps exists could prove to be useful for more than criminal investigations. EZ Pass records have been successfully utilized in divorce proceedings, proving for example that a husband's car traversed a certain strech of roadway each day between noon and 1 PM. Think how much easier it will be to track philandering spouses with this little gadget around. Toll booths are generally avoidable, and one can always pitch quarters instead of using the EZ Pass lanes, but with every police car automatically vacuuming up thousands of license plate numbers per hour it will be child's play to reconstruct someone's movements over the course of a day, month, or year.

Ubiquitous surveillance is becoming a de facto part of our lives. The Mobile Plate Hunter 900 is just one more nail in the coffin holding our illusions of privacy.

Posted at 15:28 by Chris Wysocki   []   Comments | Perm Link |   |   Tweet