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On Tuesday, one of the largest LPR manufacturers, ELSAG, announced a major upgrade to "allow investigators to search by color, seven body types, 34 makes, and nine visual descriptors in addition to the standard plate number, location, and time."
Such a vast expansion of the tech now means that evading such scans will be even more difficult.
For years, Ars has been reporting on automated license plate readers (ALPRs, or simply LPRs)—a specialized camera often mounted on police cars that can scan at speeds of up to 60 plates per second.
Those scans are compared against what law enforcement usually dubs a "hot list" before alerting the officer to the presence of a potentially wanted or stolen vehicle. All scans are typically kept in a police database for weeks, months, or years on end.
These devices are now in common use by cities big and small across the United States, as well as many countries around the globe, including the United Kingdom. Police at the upcoming royal wedding in London will use LPRs to monitor unauthorized vehicles.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 20 2018, @08:37AM (2 children)
That's kind of my point - people used to get away with that kind of thing. I knew of one case, two plates came in the mail, on the same day, Dad had Son to put the plates on the two vehicles. They were swapped. The vehicles were driven for months, when one was pulled over for something or other. Only then was the mistake discovered. Today - as you say, it would be flagged quickly. The mixup might last days or weeks, almost certainly not months.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday May 20 2018, @10:30AM (1 child)
Remember timely vehicle registration renewals.... I'll betcha your tag will appear in the patrolman's database the day after expiry.
Its a great way for police departments to get a little extra cash that's not contestable over minutiae... if you are expired - you are expired - simple as that - now pay both renewal and fine.
But, on the flip side, patrolmen do not even have to look at a hot sheet of stolen cars anywhere in the nation... once your tag number is in their database, or tag and car don't match, the patrolman is given an immediate heads up on it.
This oughta make cars extremely risky to steal, or involve in the commission of a crime.
Given all the pros and cons as I see them, I'd say go for it. If you are on the list to get nailed, your pullover will happen sooner or later anyway. This just speeds up the process quite a bit - and makes it more difficult for the people trying to game the system with tag swaps trying to evade the police until they can get your vehicle to the chop shop or out of the country. Not impossible, though. I am sure one could print off bogus plates of a similar vehicle to the one they intend to steal, so for a time, there may be two similar cars using the same tag number - which might not catch for a while.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 20 2018, @06:54PM
So you want our horribly corrupt government to be able to set up another mass surveillance scheme so that they can conduct surveillance on people to an even greater degree than they do now? You must not like whistleblowers, dissidents, journalists, or anyone else who could catch the government's ire that this system can and will be used against.
I don't see why that means it's legitimate to make the oppression faster, cheaper, and more accurate.