seriously? get off my side.

[somedaybitch]

oh.for.fuck's.sake.

the Texas Senate apparently thinks that actively recording the license plate data of every single car that drives on its freeways is a good idea, especially when it will then be tied in to state and federal level want/warrant databases.

the stupidity and arrogance of this actually, literally, leaves me speechless.

first. wow, fuck you. a lot.

second. uhm, can you say probable cause?

third. mud. it defeats optical recognition software and isn't permanent, so it can't be articulated as either intentional vandalism or obstruction of justice.

fourth. surface streets.

last. did i mention, wow, fuck you a lot?

Comments

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

In TEXAS? Um, admittedly I'm from a different country, but doesn't the Lone Star State have a reputation for political libertarianism?

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

Texas is fairly conservative but they're very, *very* independent in terms of government out of its business.

[eve11]

But remember folks, if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about, right?

I saw the best license plate a while back: I can't remember the actual plate, which I think was the whole point, but it was something like "MWMMMNWM" which in PA license plate font is practically unreadable even from pretty close up.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

heh

[gingerwood.livejournal.com]

Just thinking about this from a purely technical pov, scanning all those cars, doing a database search and forwarding the positive hits to appropriately positioned official in time to take action?

ROTFLMAO. if it doesn't fall on budget issues, it's going to die in development once people figure out that it can't be made to work.

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

yeah, but you KNOW they will try... and eventually succeed. makes my eye twitch and stuff.

AND? like all this stuff, the bad guys will simply circumvent it by being bad guys. They steal plates and cars as it is.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

it becomes at best a pointer and at worst a tracker.

[gingerwood.livejournal.com]

I'm not commenting on the (very questionable at best) morality of the project, just is feasibility. The only time I can see this being remotely usable would be in an Amber Alert situation, where your are looking for one very specific plate in a specific area. Otherwise how many searches per second, trying to hit ghod knows how many different databases?

At best you are going to wind up with is a badly outdated stack of reports on the desk of someone too busy to go through them.

At worst, your going to get corrupt law enforcement subverting the system to stalk their ex-girlfriends...

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

sorry, i meant that the way you asked it...

*if* it were enacted as law, and they got permission, then they could tie the system [with a drenload of coding, i'd imagine] into the existing Texas database and NCIC database [fed version of each state's system.]

currently, when an agency queries a plate/driver's license number/person and asks for a "full search", the parameters are automatically set up to run your query against NCIC as well as your state's database.

NCIC already has a drenload of fed sub-systems tied into it. there wouldn't be any reports to speak of because the system is already set up that if you're the Agency of Entry on something and someone runs whatever entry you added to the database - lost or stolen plates, found property, people with warrants, missing persons, etc - the system itself will forward you the information of whatever agency made the inquiry.

so I run your plates in California, but also run them in NCIC just to be thorough - our CAD system was coded to do that automatically - and let's say you're wanted in New York. NCIC will send an automated message to the agency in New York that holds the want record, so now New York knows you were in California and can go from there.

as to your "at worst", what Texas is proposing would have no impact on that. behavior like that can already occur precisely because the party that's searching has existing access and the party they're looking for is a known quantity. it honestly doesn't happen that often. everybody takes that kind of shit really, REALLY seriously...if for no other reason than an agency can lose their database access because of it. and it's several different felonies.

this law, otoh, would, if the support structure was coded correctly, send any Agency of Record a "hit" whenever a plate that was listed in the "record" was tagged driving on a Texas freeway.

worse, imho, is that all those plates WILL BE STORED. *that's* the problem i have. this isn't a communist country; the government does not have the right to be able to pro-actively, for no reason, track the movements of its citizens.

[kernezelda]

I agree with your reasoning in every detail. *nodnodnod*