ON THE RIGHTS FRONT

Again from Mike as in the Post below:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/08/16/AR2008081602218.html

License Plate Readers To Be Used In D.C. Area

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2008; C01

Authorities plan to install about 200 automated license plate readers on police
vehicles and alongside roads in the Washington area to thwart potential terrorist attacks,
dramatically expanding the use of a high-tech tool previously aimed at parking scofflaws and car thieves.
And I know this is silly but how many terrorists use vehicles or tags registered in their name? 
 Why them scofflaws!

Top homeland security officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District agreed last week to spend $4.5 million
on the new system, officials said Friday. The funds will come from a $59.8 million  federal homeland security
grant for the D.C. area announced last month. That grant also will be used to outfit police with radiation detectors,
improve hazmat and bomb squads and provide equipment to hospitals, officials decided.

License plate scanners, also known as tag readers, took off in Britain in the 1990s as a way to deter Irish
Republican Army attacks, and police here have started using the technology to identify stolen vehicles
and illegally parked cars. A handful of the devices are in use by law enforcement agencies in the Washington
region for such tasks.

The new project is much broader, installing cameras on about 160 police
vehicles and at 40 fixed sites, such as airports or highway entrances,
officials say. It appears to be one of the most extensive license
reading systems in the nation, according to privacy experts.

"Of course it is mych broader.  Anytime they adopt a citizen surveillance project it always
becomes much larger doesn't it?" 

"This is a vast expansion of the technology, and a vast change in  the goal of the technology,"
said Melissa Ngo, publisher of http://www.privacylives.com, a site about privacy and civil liberties issues.
Ngo, a former journalist who has worked at The Washington Post and other publications, questioned the
outlay of so much money on a project described as an anti-terrorist tool.

"Does make one wonder doesn't it?  Like would such a system have helped prevent 9/11"

"Do they have any proof that this works?" Ngo asked.

Arlington Police Capt. Kevin Reardon, who has worked on planning the new system, said the tag
readers have shown that they can boost police efficiency.
"There is a limit to POLICE EFFICIENCY you know?" German prison camps were
extremely efficient. Is that what we want ?
 
"The technology has reached the point where it's very good now. It puts a tool in the
hands of police officers out in the street to help fight terrorism," said Reardon, who works in his
department's homeland security unit.

The readers will scan the license plate of every vehicle that zooms by and run the numbers through
federal criminal databases and terrorist watch lists, Reardon said. Maryland, Virginia and
the District could plug in additional databases.

"And therin lies the rub. Bank databases? Credit card databases?
Who decides what and when?  This is scary!"

When the machines get "hits," they instantly notify police or other law enforcement officials.
The devices can typically read hundreds of plates an hour.

Civil liberties advocates say the tag readers are the latest sign of how surveillance programs are
expanding in U.S. cities, driven by terrorism fears and rapidly developing technology. New York
officials said last week that they plan to scan the license plates of all cars and trucks
entering Manhattan as part of a new security system that also involves thousands of
closed-circuit cameras.

"And so New York City becomes a fortress to keep the bad guys out. But
that also enables control over who is within. And who is next? Miami,
Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angles, Houston and on and on until America is a land
of fortresses controlled by their Police Departments. Are not Tallahassee,
Florida and Canton, Ohio prime examples of why we do not want that to happen?"

In the District, the government plans to use $10 million from another homeland security grant
to centralize monitoring of the city's growing network of closed-circuit cameras at schools, public
buildings and  other places. Although city officials say the project is aimed at improving
emergency response, it has stirred fierce opposition from some D.C. Council members.

"Doesn't calling 911 provide the same service at less cost?"

Privacy advocates say they are concerned about what is done with the images picked
up.

"What's going to happen to the data?" asked MarcRotenberg, executive director of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center, which monitors civil liberties issues. "The Department
of Homeland Security will now have an enormous amount of information about the
travel habits of Washington area residents."

Rotenberg questioned whether the terrorist databases connected to the readers would be any more
reliable than the much-criticized watch lists used at airports. (see our
post on the 9 y.o. who can't get off the terrorist watch list)

Authorities say many of the details of the new program are being worked out. But
Reardon said that at least in the short term, officials don't plan to store data on the scanned license
plates, except for those associated with terrorism or other crime. "
"at least in the short term",
hello, I hear an escape clause, I hear an escape clause. Also known as BUllshit!

"We'll have to carefully weigh all those [privacy] issues and make sure we do it the right way,"
said Andrew Lauland, the top homeland security official in Maryland.

Homeland Security is over FEMA who was over the debacle that resulted
from trying to "Help" Katrina victms. Keep in mind also that
"Blackwater U.S.A. forces were also the first "security" personnel into
New Orleans after the storm.  Not thinking I trust Homeland Security!

But, he said, license plates are open to view by any passerby. "So there's nothing
intrusive about it," he said.

In some ways, the new system might be less invasive, Reardon said. Currently, police can
run the plate number of any vehicle, turning up the name of the owner, he said.
The new system pulls up information only on cars linked to crime or terrorism, he said.
"Or whatever database is plugged into it remember? Is this is whatis
known as government doublespeak"

If a vehicle has no such associations, "you're not even in the database," he said.

Lauland said the system could be useful in such incidents as the hijacking of a fuel
tanker in Baltimore last fall that raised fears of potential terrorism. The vehicle was
found in the District, and a  terror connection was ruled out.
Another Tactic that would be useful would be looking for fuel tankers
as opposed to license tags.  Oh wait a second? Are they now insinuating
that each tag will have installed on it a device allowing the tag to be read
and monitored? After all do you  need a tag reader to say to yourself,
self, that's a fuel tanker? 

In England, one of the suspects in last year's botched car bomb attacks in London and
Glasgow was arrested after his license plate was picked up by roadside cameras.
And he was a stupid terrorists if he tried to get away in a car bomb.

Reardon said, however, that there might be a time delay of up to several hours in getting
information on wanted cars into the license plate devices being installed in police
vehicles. He said the devices would be useful for more than just potentially stopping
terrorists. "It will help us identify other types of criminal activity" by detecting cars
used in offenses such as bank robberies, he said. Because we know all bank robbers
use cars registered in their own names and they drive these cars
hurs after they have robbed the bank just hoping an eyewitness ID's
them making them easier to catch. That is how it happens isn't it?
 
The tag readers are one of about two dozen projects in the Washington region that will
be funded with the homeland security grant, an annual award to urban areas at risk of
terrorist attack.  Well if they leave out any convience stores, dunkin donuts,
starbucks coffee's or politician frequented escort services you do know it
is discrimination don't you?
 
Officials announced that they will also spend $4 million to equip police in the area
with radiation detectors;  $5.6 million for training and gear for local bomb squads;
and about $18 million for equipment, planning and exercises to help the region's hospitals
and medical personnel cope with disasters.

And don't forget the cost of building effecient prisons for effecient police to fill 

Robert Malson, president of the D.C. Hospital Association, said he was grateful that
state and local officials had devoted so much of the grant to the medical sector.

"Normally they focus most of the money on government agencies, but the hospitals
are a critical part of the response to any natural disaster or
terrorist attack," he said.

The $59.8 million urban area grant to the region was smaller than the $61.6 million it
received last year from the Department of Homeland Security. However, the D.C. area
also received a new homeland-security grant this year, of $11.5 million, to help it
prepare for such catastrophes as the detonation of a nuclear bomb.

Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this  report.

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