Every Move You Make
Soon the police will always be watching every public move you make:
A vast system that tracks the comings and goings of anyone driving around the District. … More than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time. ..
With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles. … The District [of Columbia] … has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well … creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District. … The data are kept for three years in the District. … Police can also plug any license plate number into the database and, as long as it passed a camera, determine where that vehicle has been and when. …
The tag readers … cost about $20,000 each. … The District has 73 readers; 38 of them sit stationary and the rest are attached to police cars. D.C. officials say every police car will have one some day. … The District’s … officers make an average of an arrest a day directly from the plate readers. … There are no laws governing how or when Washington area police can use the tag reader technology. … 37 percent of large police agencies in the United States now use license plate reader technology. (more; also)
As prices rapidly fall, this will be widely deployed. Unless there is a public outcry, which seems unlikely at the moment, within twenty years most traffic intersections will probably have tag readers, neighboring jurisdictions will share databases, and so police will basically track all cars all the time. With this precedent, cameras that track pedestrians and people in cars via their faces and gaits will follow within another decade or two.
If firms tried to set up camera networks to collect and sell similar info, I would expect an outcry and regulations to stop them. But police will be not only be allowed to continue, they’ll probably also usually succeed in intimidating citizens away from recording police interactions with citizens, no matter what the official rules say.
PA - I made the mistake of reading Mark M's post first. I did not take his position as being condescending. In his reality there are things that he feels won't change. I am new to this site but I have been here for over an hour. (Just Bookmarked!) I think you were on point but your reaction to perceived criticism means you are passionate about your belief. I look forward to finding people who understand the progressive threat to our Liberty. However, I must quote Abe Lincoln "I do not like that man. I must get to know him better." This is a cool site!
As prices continue to fall, this will be easily doable even by individual hobbyists. I have a clear view of the I-880 from my window, and could easily record all cars passing it, given the right equipment.
I think this technology is inevitable. I think that governments using it is inevitable. The only thing that can go either way is if regular citizens will be allowed to use it too. That might be something worth fighting for.