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Title: RCMP defends licence-plate scanning technology
Category: Law & Order
Posted By: martin14
Date: 2012-11-16 04:34:16
Canadian

   

Didn't even know they were doing this.

No it doesn't.

It does however, catch people with expired plates, so the police
can collect the fines.

Nice budget item.

   

The police in the UK have been doing this for years now. It means that in seconds they can be notified if a vehicle is insured, licensed to be on the road, who it's registered to and if it is tagged for any previous criminal activity. It definately helps as it catches people out straight away if they try to lie, and there are no issues with privacy.

   

There's no issue with the initial scan of the plate for the reasons you cited, it's after they scan the plate they don't delete information about vehicles that do not match an alert list compiled by the Mounties.

The BC Privacy Commissionaire stated:

So basically we're slowly becomming a police state, with the RCMP being allowed to keep files on everyone innocent, guilty or in between just like the Stasi, KGB and Gestapo did.

But here's a bit of trivia that I didn't know.

   

That information is already on file anyways with the DMV and the police have full access.

   

The information about where and when your vehicle was recorded as being on a road is not available in the DMV. That's the info they are not allowed to keep.

   

They're not keeping it anyways. I fail to see what the issue is here.

   

The diff is this system allows them to track people's movements. Not a good idea, Just delete the plate number if there's no hit. There's no reason to keep it.

   

They don't need to use this to find you, if they really cared most people carry around a smartphone with built in GPS which can easily be tracked.

   

It's not about finding you, it's about keeping a record of your movements. They don't randomly track smartphones to record people's movements.

   

Neither are the RCMP, I doubt they care about everyone that has been to BC and when, it consumes a lot of manpower which they are still trying to acquire. It is also expensive when organizations are being told to cut spending.

   

Jeez Jeff. This system automatically records licences plate numbers. And it keeps that record on file. There is no effort or expense involved. If they want, they can go back an review that record any time. In a normal situation it's no biggie. But we want to guard against this sort of thing from being misused.

Why are you defending them keeping this info on file? What is the benefit that you see that outweighs the dangers?

   

"They"

Boo!

"They" are behind you andy! Watch out!

   

Oooooh, you scared the big bad RCMP is going to spend the time to find out you visited BC a few weeks ago or you were driving in the area you live?

   

The issuse is that with a few easy modifications, they could indefinitely keep that information. Since they don't have to inform the public before they do, it's up to us to keep an eye on use of such technology.

We have no guaranteed right to privacy, we only have that which we claim for ourselves. We have to say "this far, and no further" because once lost it's very difficult to get back.

   

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