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Claiming it's because there's no poles to mount them on, the City of Paradise Valley, Arizona began installing license plate readers inside towering, fake cacti:
LPRs are normally mounted on light poles and traffic lights to scan for stolen cars or vehicles involved in an Amber Alert, but cities and counties have been stashing them in dozens of different covert locations, from car's fog lamps to retrofitted ladders. And in Arizona, it's not uncommon to see antennas camouflaged as a cactus, so the decision – at least from an aesthetic point-of-view – makes sense.
[...] [Town manager Kevin] Burke said the cameras are not being put in fake cactus to be secretive, but because there are no light poles in the area to put them on. He says they're trying to make the cameras aesthetically pleasing. It's all part of a $2 million police technology upgrade the council passed last year.
Is it safe to say the cameras are operated by a bunch of pricks?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2015, @08:37AM
No law against shooting cacti, is there? Just be sure to use FMJ, to minimize damage to legitimate cacti.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2015, @08:52AM
Reckless discharge of a firearm. Your stray bullets could hit children. Won't you think of the children.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2015, @10:13AM
But it's Arizona! Them's anchor children! Or if not, ones not being edjucated proper anyhoo. Didn't you seen the movie, "Raising Arizona"? Never leave a man behind.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday May 16 2015, @10:52AM
Shooting would leave ugly holes in them. You don't want them to look ugly do you?
What you need is some cactus colored spray paint so you can go around and make sure they are all nice and evenly coated.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2015, @06:05PM
My spray-paint idea was to alert others to the ruse by painting letters on the fakes
^
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C
A
M
E
R
A
such that the tip of the arrow is painted over the lens.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday May 17 2015, @11:37AM
Further thought: Bonus points if you do such a good job on the paint they lose track of it amongst the real cacti.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday May 16 2015, @11:43AM
Jeez, for a geek site that's a really lame idea. I would think a HERF gun or EMP cannon would be much more apropos. Of course, it might raise some suspicion if the last picture on all the dead ALPRs is your license plate (I'm assuming the camera uploads remotely and the range of the camera exceeds the effective range of your beam/pulse).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday May 16 2015, @01:43PM
I've been using Waze to commute from Brooklyn to Long Island lately and it's a pretty good app and use of crowdsourcing. It even tells me when there are potholes, red light cameras, cars left on the shoulder, and cops. If license plate scanners are included then you could set your EMP gun to nerf the scanner before it scans you.
Ever since the flashmob phenomenon arrived on the scene a decade and a half ago I've thought that crowdsourcing technology was going to play a significant role in the next revolution.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2015, @11:58PM
Modern civilization is too comfortable for revolution. As long as there is a middle class, that will remain true.
Unless living standards fail the flashmob is for doing the Thriller dance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @06:32PM
There hasn't been a middle class for a while, and a large portion of the former-middle class are still supporting the policies that dismantled it in the first place, dreaming that one day maybe they'll be part of the 1% (and somehow missing that the policies they support are the reason they never will be).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2015, @02:11PM
If it is a Saguaro, in Arizona oh yes there is a law preventing shooting it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro#Laws [wikipedia.org]