license plate scanning

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Great article in Car and Driver about License plate scanners.

We all know that LEO's use them, but there are now many private companies also involved.

Repo companies use them and have HUGE databases. And Vigilant Solutions and Digital Recognition Network boast of 2 BILLION scans in their files. Vigilant adds 100 million per MONTH!

Is tech outpacing regulation/protection?
 
What regulations might they be violating?

Seems the same arguments about cameras in public places would apply to any scanning. State laws indicate we must display one or two plates. That doesn't prevent folks from reading the plates.

Is anyone suggesting the machine reading of something you or I can read with our eyes is illegal?

Just because a machine can do in a matter of seconds what it might take us minutes or hours to do doesn't make the machine process illegal or unethical.

Someone with malice in mind can jot down your tag on a note card and get information the old fashioned way.

I guess I'm not seeing the issue here.

Pay cash for your cars, pay your bills and you don't need to worry about the repo guy.
 
On the other side i rather have the repo guy not make a mistake by reading a 8 instead of an B and hook the wrong car.
The finance company owns the car until its paid for so i guess its up to them. Maybe i am not understanding the concerns.
 
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I would hope they also check the VIN, not just the tag.A hit on the tag would be the first of many steps one would hope they take before taking the vehicle.

One would think they would examine the VIN before taking off with it. Not to mention verification of the tag to ensure it wasn't an OCR error like the one you mention.

Originally Posted By: Trav
On the other side i rather have the repo guy not make a mistake by reading a 8 instead of an B and hook the wrong car.
The finance company owns the car until its paid for so i guess its up to them. Maybe i am not understanding the concerns.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Great article in Car and Driver about License plate scanners.

We all know that LEO's use them, but there are now many private companies also involved.

Repo companies use them and have HUGE databases. And Vigilant Solutions and Digital Recognition Network boast of 2 BILLION scans in their files. Vigilant adds 100 million per MONTH!

Is tech outpacing regulation/protection?


What associated information is in the database? Thats the important thing. Hopefully its not easy to find a name/address if you have a plate.
 
No wants, no warrants and debt-free. No worries.

Everywhere I go it's probably safe to assume I'm being recorded and tracked by at least someone or something.
That and my conscience have thus far conspired to keep me and mine out of trouble.
 
About a year or so ago, I saw on the news where some high school students were "borrowing" the license plate off of their teacher's cars and putting on a a different vehicle for a few hours. They would drive through a few red lights and then quietly put them back on the teacher's cars. The teachers had to take time off of their busy day to appear in court and describe what had happened and convince the judge that the car that appeared in the photo was not theirs.
Is this the society that everybody is wanting to go to?
 
The last time I drove thru Denver I took a toll road and the license scanners took care of the tolling so I never had to stop. They mailed a bill less than 30 days later.

I think it is one thing to scan licenses for information, demographics, etc. but license plates could be easily faked with a digital camera and a color laser printer. Until they have some kind of transponders that make a positive ID the idea of using scanners for a legal basis is kind of sketchy, if you ask me.
 
The license plate readers work well i was stopped because my car registration was overdue almost a year and i never knew it. I was happy to find out. It may be still overdue if it was not for the license plate reader the trooper had.
 
There was an LA Times story a few weeks back where cops blocked off the Northbound 110 fwy regular lanes, directing traffic to take the HOT lane, then thousands of tickets were later mailed to "violators".
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-metro-toll-fine-mistake-20140917-story.html

So, unintended consequences, how many are going to take a chance a second time driving through a metered choke point? The technology works, but not many LEO are going to say "Oh, turn off the cameras before we block traffic to try to get this high-priority guy."? So a lot of people pay the price fighting tickets. This, from a system that has in place a procedure for just such an occasion.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
On the other side i rather have the repo guy not make a mistake by reading a 8 instead of an B and hook the wrong car.
The finance company owns the car until its paid for so i guess its up to them. Maybe i am not understanding the concerns.

I'd hope the repossession order would include the make and model of car. Maybe even the color if known. If they just operating off a license plate number, then that would seem to be a lack of due diligence.
 
Originally Posted By: spackard
There was an LA Times story a few weeks back where cops blocked off the Northbound 110 fwy regular lanes, directing traffic to take the HOT lane, then thousands of tickets were later mailed to "violators".

I'm sure traffic cameras were far from the top priority of officers responding at the scene or coordinating the response. It's an unfortunate nuisance, but that's how we learn about such things - by trial and error.
 
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