License plate reader

[Bhigdog]

Read in the paper today my township police dept just ordered a license plate reader for one of their patrol cars. The dept has 3 cars and maybe 4 full time officers. I'm wondering how long until they read the ersatz YOM plate I have on my 39 Chev PU?

Guess I better start buying some donuts........Bob

[mrspeedyt]

Stay a few car lengths ahead of any cop and back in to a space to park. Or put on the legal plate when on the road.

[Harold]

New York City just loves plate readers.  They use them in conjunction with speed cameras for effortless revenue generation.   It seems like there is a reader every few hundred feet.

 

Several years ago New Jersey went over to temporary tags ('paper plates') that are the same size as metal plates and must be displayed in the license plate area on each vehicle.  I believe this was done to facilitate electronic plate readers.  Temporary tags used to be small pieces of paper that got taped to the inside of the rear window.

[Bhigdog]

4 minutes ago, mrspeedyt said:

Stay a few car lengths ahead of any cop and back in to a space to park. Or put on the legal plate when on the road.

Yeah, i have a legal antique plate but i kind of like to play on the edge. If i,m ever stopped i,ll use Seinfeld,s uncle leo excuse. "I,m old. I,m confused".......bob

[NailheadBob]

In Chicago on the Dan Ryan expressway they now have video surveillance cameras and signs posted to help try to catch vehicles with all the increase in shootings on the expressway (that is out of control) and also capture the license plate number, but the shooters are probably in a stolen vehicles because the shootings are going up NOT down.

[edinmass]

 

Most of the plate readers are not set up to understand YOM plates............the prefix on the registrations are different. Some day, they will catch up........but I have driven past them countless times without any issue. There is a Montana motorhome that drives around with an identical plate number to one of my cars.....and I keep getting toll bills from all over the country. I finally called Montana and they somehow pulled the plate........talk about dealing with BS.

[JACK M]

I have a friend that outfits police cars.

He told me once that a cop car may have as many as 9 cameras on it (as do most new cars) that will read license numbers and put them into the computer instantly.

Often a cop may cruise parking lots etc. and his onboard computer will alert if his cruiser spots a stolen or a wanted instantly.

Big Brother is here.

As for the YOM I couldn't say, but my DD has them and I have never been hassled.

They did supply me with a bright orange sticker, but I never did put it on the plate.

I keep it with my registration on the visor though.

Is this where I should have put my thumb over the plate? 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by JACK M (see edit history)

[3macboys]

1 hour ago, JACK M said:

Often a cop may cruise parking lots etc. and his onboard computer will alert if his cruiser spots a stolen or a wanted instantly.

That's actually what the license plate readers on cruisers are for.  Every jurisdiction is different, however, in a general sense they have a separate data base for stolen vehicles, suspended drivers, no insurance and that sort of thing that the plates captured by the cameras are run against, generally the kind of people that you would want removed from the road.  They are decidedly different than speed cameras, toll cameras and red light cameras.  If your plate is not linked to one of the designated offences in your area then the officer won't receive any alerts.  Bit of an interesting bit of information on these systems is in relation to the Amber Alert system.  So long as the camera system is activated (regardless if the officer is in the cruiser) if a vehicle subject to an alert passes by, the system will automatically notify the original agency of the location of the suspect vehicle.   Most of these systems dump the data that they collect every 24hrs.  Now if you only knew how many cameras actually capture your activity every day you would never leave your house.  

[Bhigdog]

23 minutes ago, 3macboys said:

Now if you only knew how many cameras actually capture your activity every day you would never leave your house.  

Or internet connected voice activated devices that are listening to your every word you would never say anything.........Bob

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Bhigdog said:

Or internet connected voice activated devices that are listening to your every word you would never say anything.........Bob

I mentioned this to my wife last week and she just laughed at me.

....then Siri laughed.... and then Alexa laughed....

[Bhigdog]

Is alexa and/or siri quiety listening for key words that prompts an algorithm that monitors your conversation for content that is interpreted by an AI program that decides if it needs to be forworded to the NSA/FBI?.... Hey, not sayin that,s the way it is. Just sayin it would,nt  be hard to do.......bob

Edited May 5, 2022 by Bhigdog (see edit history)

[hidden_hunter]

They have been in use here for years, have been for a ride along in one of the tech demo in a 5 series (our highway patrol cars now we don't make anything locally) 

 

They literally scan everything they drive past for current registration status and flag anything that isnt current and alert the police

 

[ply33]

On 5/3/2022 at 4:37 PM, Bhigdog said:

Read in the paper today my township police dept just ordered a license plate reader for one of their patrol cars. The dept has 3 cars and maybe 4 full time officers. I'm wondering how long until they read the ersatz YOM plate I have on my 39 Chev PU?

Guess I better start buying some donuts........Bob

A few years ago I read that in some parts of the country vehicle repo companies equip cars with plate readers and are driving around to build their own databases. When when they get an order in to repossess a car they look it up in their database and determine where it is likely to be found (work hours around business x, evenings around apartment y, etc.). Don't worry, like Google and Facebook, they are private companies that can collect and manage personal data on everyone everywhere without much push back because, well private enterprise can do no harm. Or something like that.

 

Personally, I'd rather have only the police allowed to use plate readers. There is the slight possibility of public oversight against misuse by the police.

 

On the other hand, this is a battle that is probably already lost. Plate number recognition is a pretty trivial computer engineering problem nowadays. I haven't checked but it would not surprise me if a hobbyist could cobble together a setup for a couple hundred dollars or less. Or just make a smartphone app with zero incremental hardware cost.

 

On 5/3/2022 at 6:28 PM, Harold said:

Several years ago New Jersey went over to temporary tags ('paper plates') that are the same size as metal plates and must be displayed in the license plate area on each vehicle.  I believe this was done to facilitate electronic plate readers.  Temporary tags used to be small pieces of paper that got taped to the inside of the rear window.

California also switched to temporary plates about three or four years ago too. And I have seen cars from several other states here with very similar temporary plates. I suspect that there is/was a nationwide shift to using them. And based on the similar appearance of out of state temporary plates I have seen, I suspect there is a standard the states agreed to on their design.

 

8 hours ago, Bhigdog said:

Or internet connected voice activated devices that are listening to your every word you would never say anything.........Bob

As a retired software engineer, I do not allow a voice activated device in my house. Nor do I allow a security camera inside my house. The few "Internet of Things" devices I have are relegated to a separate isolated subnet and cannot interact with anything other than themselves. Those devices are just a security nightmare.

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, hidden_hunter said:

They literally scan everything they drive past for current registration status and flag anything that isnt current and alert the police

With technology driving surveillance and enforcement in this direction, soon the patrolmen themselves will become obsolete.  They can replace them with automatons of one sort or another and completely eliminate the human error factor.   This would also have the added advantage of making moot the point of any prejudicial claims of a human officer's performance.  Cold and unfeeling perhaps, but completely accurate.  No longer the need for shift changes, lunch breaks, sleep, vacations, union squabbles, expensive retirement packages, etc.  Just that endless, ever-watching and deadly efficiency.  Able to detect, prove and mete out punitive measures on the spot.   From simple monetary sanctions to some type of corporal punishment, be it a damn good slap and a hair pull, to a debilitating electro-shock, all the way up to execution and immediate cremation on the spot for those who are beyond redemption.   A decisive and effective system offering no time wasting appeals.  Prisons will no longer be needed.   The long term effect should be much like that in the days of public execution in its deterrent factor.  The court system will be freed up to deal with more esoteric issues rather than run of the mill crime.  People will once again have respect for the law. 

Think of it... the slower traffic on the freeways will actually be in the right lanes, drivers will quickly re-learn the lost art of proper rotation at a 4 way stop, even BMW drivers will start using their turn signals.

Crimes like rioting, robbery, vandalism, even misdemeanors like speeding, littering, etc. would soon become crimes of the past.  Our streets will be safe from coast to coast.  And there will never be a question of de-funding them.

You may scoff but I see this as the sure and certain future for all of us.  Personally I am all for the safety and accuracy this type of dystopian law enforcement will offer.

C'mon, get on board with me.  What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

 

[Billy Kingsley]

2 hours ago, Bhigdog said:

Is alexa and/or siri quiety listening for key words that prompts an algorithm that monitors your conversation for content that is interpreted by an AI program that decides if it needs to be forworded to the NSA/FBI?.... Hey, not sayin that,s the way it is. Just sayin it would,nt  be hard to do.......bob

 

Sadly just paranoia. If it was true there would be a whole lot less murders, terrorist attacks, etc. 

[Frank DuVal]

On 5/3/2022 at 9:28 PM, Harold said:

Several years ago New Jersey went over to temporary tags ('paper plates') that are the same size as metal plates and must be displayed in the license plate area on each vehicle. 

Virginia has had these cardboard temporary plates (two per car) since I was a small child. I never understood all those cars travelling through our state with little pieces of paper in the back window. How is a police man supposed to read that?

[Frank DuVal]

1 hour ago, ply33 said:

As a retired software engineer, I do not allow a voice activated device in my house.

Nor do I. My daughter put tape over every computer camera except her phone, since she uses that as a camera. Something she learned while in college with FBI agents. No Nest (etc) thermostats for us either. I use a camera for Zoom and Teams meetings sometimes. It is a USB camera/microphone, which I unplug after the meeting.

 

I bought a Bluetooth/FM/Aux receiver circuit board to play with, trying to adapt to a car radio. It has a microphone. I do not see why one would be needed. No voice commands, uses a typical small IR remote. It won't have a microphone soon!😉

[46 woodie]

I think they are great, if you aren't breaking the law you have nothing to worry about. My city also has "red light cameras". There was a time that if you came to a stop light, two or three car's would literally pass you and go thru the light. Not anymore, dozens of citations mailed out in the first month alone. You get a picture of your car, a close up of your plate and the light showing that it was red and a $125 fine.

[Bhigdog]

11 hours ago, Billy Kingsley said:

Sadly just paranoia.

Even paranoids can have people out to get them..............Bob

[Max4Me]

11 hours ago, 46 woodie said:

if you aren't breaking the law you have nothing to worry about.

I hear this all the time. I then tell the people “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be happy if I came to your house and rummaged through your underwear drawer.”

[nzcarnerd]

On 5/5/2022 at 2:16 PM, hidden_hunter said:

They have been in use here for years, have been for a ride along in one of the tech demo in a 5 series (our highway patrol cars now we don't make anything locally) 

 

They literally scan everything they drive past for current registration status and flag anything that isnt current and alert the police

 

Here in NZ the Holden Commodore has been the Police car of choice for many years. As you say they make them anymore and the government has gone with Skodas - the Superb wagon, which is a roomy and powerful (206 kw) 4WD car. I think the last series Commodores - the Euro ones - were not that popular. I suspect their on board technology is up the with the Oz stuff.

 

Report - NAP615 - 2020 SKODA SUPERB in White | CARJAM

 

[Guest]

I swear I mean  no offense nzcarnerd, especially if you happen to be a law enforcement officer, but I just can't believe I read the words "Skoda" and "Superb" in the same sentence.  

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by GregLaR (see edit history)

[ply33]

1 hour ago, GregLaR said:

I swear I mean  no offense nzcarnerd, especially if you happen to be a law enforcement officer, but I just can't believe I read the words "Skoda" and "Superb" in the same sentence.  

 

Sounds like that "Superb" is the model name. Skoda has been owned by VW for a couple of decades now and from what I read on the European automotive websites seems to be pretty well regarded nowadays.

[hidden_hunter]

6 hours ago, ply33 said:

Sounds like that "Superb" is the model name. Skoda has been owned by VW for a couple of decades now and from what I read on the European automotive websites seems to be pretty well regarded nowadays

That is the name of it, it’s on the same platform as a golf