Get Out the Tin Foil Hats...

As if we didn't have enough reasons to get out the tin foil hats, the Indianapolis Metro Police Department have equipped 5 cruisers with $20,000 license plate scanner devices. Ok, the tech is pretty cool. As a police car drives around, it scans plates and compares them against their crime database. Several other cities have the devices too. This isn't what scares me.

Here's scary quote #1 from the article, "...the technology is valuable for capturing people who have just committed crimes. Officers can punch in license plate numbers for suspects and the scanner will notify them if they pass the car on the street... 'So, if we are looking for a certain license plate, they can run it to see if they came across it, and where.'" Let me translate that for you. "We're going to track every car we come across and store that information in a database so we can use it later for police purposes."

Scary quote #2, "It will tell the officer if the owner of the plate is wanted on a warrant or if a car is stolen." Ok, this is more of a lawsuit waiting to happen than a scary quote. Let's say your car brakes down and you've got to borrow one from a less than scrupulous buddy with an outstanding warrant for dope possession. Officer Robocop drives by, gets a beep for an outstanding warrant, pulls your ass over and, although you try to explain it's your friend's car, they still give you the cavity search and go through the car finding your friend's pipe. Guess who's going to jail all because he borrowed his friend's car to buy his sick grandma some Depends? Yes, this is an extreme case but there are documented incidents where a person has been flagged and hassled because they have a similar or the same name as someone else. I guess it'll take the right lawyer to buddy with the ACLU after getting the hassle from one of these black boxes. I guess until that day comes, I'll have to invest in some infrared led's and tin foil hats.