[Previous entry: "Military voting right wing but not Republican"] [Next entry: "Glaciers melting is causing searise"]

07/21/2007: "License plate monitor can scan a street in seconds"

New York's Long Beach Police Department is among a growing number of law enforcement agencies using the roof-mounted license-plate reader, the Mobile Plate Hunter.

Bleeps and alarms are emitted as the device's two infrared cameras scan license plates at a rate of 15 to 25 a second, said North Carolina-based manufacturer Remington Elsag.

Those plate numbers are sent to a database in the police car trunk and compared with a digital list of vehicles wanted for crimes, traffic violations, reported stolen cars and vehicles linked to alerts for kidnapped children, authorities said.

The infrared cameras, which work like supermarket scanners, can record the plates of moving or stopped cars.

[ Look for more of this in the future. The database makes law enforcement easy, and getting in good graces difficult. Add to that trial by media, and you've got the perfect police state, without totalitarianism. ]


http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-scanners15jul15,1,4895799.story?ctrack=1&cset=true