Surveillance Society: Cameras added to scan license plates!
LIGHTHOUSE POINT, Florida - January 4, 2010 - After thieves filled a U-Haul with a home's contents in June and a man in a white truck approached a child in September, Police Chief Ross Licata wished for witnesses.
This month, he'll have 26 sentries: stationary license plate scanners that will record an estimated 60,000 tags within or entering this 2.4-square-mile city each day.
"This information isn't going to solve every crime that occurs," Licata said, "but provides us with an enhanced level of intelligence and will aid our investigators to clear crimes they might not have been able to in the past."
The American Civil Liberties Union counters that the technology displaces crime to other jurisdictions. The group wants to see a balance between privacy protections and police work.
"We have no assurance that technology like this will be focused only on wrongdoers," said Courtenay Strickland, director of public policy for the ACLU. "Studies of video surveillance in general in the United Kingdom show it has not been very effective at all."
This month, he'll have 26 sentries: stationary license plate scanners that will record an estimated 60,000 tags within or entering this 2.4-square-mile city each day.
"This information isn't going to solve every crime that occurs," Licata said, "but provides us with an enhanced level of intelligence and will aid our investigators to clear crimes they might not have been able to in the past."
The American Civil Liberties Union counters that the technology displaces crime to other jurisdictions. The group wants to see a balance between privacy protections and police work.
"We have no assurance that technology like this will be focused only on wrongdoers," said Courtenay Strickland, director of public policy for the ACLU. "Studies of video surveillance in general in the United Kingdom show it has not been very effective at all."
