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Police in Toronto have been doing this for years. Specifically, some parking enforcement cars have plate scanners on them that look for stolen vehicles as they
by james_pm 9y ago
Police in Toronto have been doing this for years. Specifically, some parking enforcement cars have plate scanners on them that look for stolen vehicles as they drive around.
Ontario Provincial Police also scans plates for cars with violations (stolen, expired registration, etc.).
The former (stolen car search) I don't have a problem with as long as the scanning is 100% limited to searching for stolen cars and destroyed as soon as the car is determined to be not stolen.
The latter (scanning for registration issues, etc.) is a different issue. I am not in favour of this kind of automated "law enforcement".
Data retention is a big issue with these kinds of systems. They might say they only use the data to find stolen cars, but if the data is stored or retained and then can be used in other investigations or for other types of enforcement via data mining...that's a slippery slope.
- primitivesuave 9y agoI like this perspective, it's the right balance between privacy and effective policing. If the data persisted over a long period of time, you could use it to determine where someone travels and subsequently what activities they engage in and who they are connected to. As for automated law enforcement, I find it just creates a private market for subversion and doesn't really improve safety (e.g. many GPS systems will warn you about speeding cameras placed along the road so you can slow down in time).