So they say, and have they started back up yet, Globe?
"Boston Police halt license scanning program" by Shawn Musgrave | Globe Correspondent, December 14, 2013
The Boston Police Department has indefinitely suspended its use of high-tech scanners that automatically check whether drivers have outstanding parking tickets, lapsed insurance or other violations after a Globe investigation raised serious privacy concerns.
The police inadvertently released to the Globe the license plate numbers of more than 68,000 vehicles that had tripped alarms on automated license plate readers over a six-month period. Many of the vehicles were scanned dozens of times in that period alone.
This is the same government charged with protecting our privacy from hackers and all the rest, right?
It reaches a point of ridiculousness that isn't funny, folks.
The accidental release triggered immediate doubts about whether the police could reliably protect the sensitive data. It also raised questions about whether police were following up on the scans, since numerous vehicles repeatedly triggered alarms for the same offenses. One motorcycle that had been reported stolen triggered scanner alerts 59 times over six months, while another plate with lapsed insurance was scanned a total of 97 times in the same span.
“We just took [the scanner program] off-line while the commissioner reviews it,” said Boston police spokeswoman Cheryl Fiandaca. Commissioner William Evans “wants to review it so he knows that it’s being used effectively and that it doesn’t invade anyone’s privacy.”
Uh-huh -- even though the very nature of the program is an intrusion.
But welcome to 21st-century AmeriKa just before its fall, and the little laboratory of Massachusetts.
But privacy advocates said Boston’s problems with the scanners underscore how easily the technology can be misused. The Boston police are one of the few departments in the state with explicit policies to protect privacy, but the released data calls into question how closely they follow their own rules.
Look, I've been doing this long enough to know state authority in AmeriKa now thinks it is above the law. They and the cla$$ of people they rub elbows are above the laws. Those are only meant for poor slobs like me.
“It’s not realistic to think that law enforcement will police itself when it comes to technologies like license plate readers,” said state Representative Jonathan Hecht, a Watertown Democrat who has filed a bill to regulate use of scanners and the sensitive data they collect.
But they are allowed to investigate all the cops who killed civilians, and whadda ya' know, they are all absolved or acquitted even if it takes several trials. Those crack fed prosecutors, 'eh!?!
Hecht believes that the scanner technology has “gotten ahead of thoughtful policymaking on its use. . . . From their point of view, more information is always better.”
That's the mind-set of the totalitarians and control freaks in charge of this nation now.
Remember, folks, all this goes into the growing NSA database complexes to form a communications and movement monitoring $y$tem of $urveillance.
Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which has raised concerns about the proliferation of plate scanners, praised Boston police for suspending the program and urged other departments to follow suit. “We call on police departments statewide to cease using license plate recognition technology until the state Legislature passes regulation,” said Kade Crockford of the civil liberties union.
More than 60 law enforcement agencies across Massachusetts use automated license plate recognition technology, including every police department in the Boston area. The scanners use high-speed cameras to compare plates against police databases, including vehicles associated with outstanding warrants, lapsed registration, expired insurance, or unpaid parking tickets.
The readers also record the date, time, and GPS location of each vehicle, even in heavy traffic. The technology thus offers a wealth of information for surveillance as well as investigations: with enough scans over time, police can trace a particular vehicle’s path and discern driving habits.
I must be jaded because I assume every text, call, transaction, etc, etc, etc, is monitored as well as any movement when I leave the house. I look up at the sky and wonder where is the drone or satellite looking back at me. Not at me in particular. I'm just a poor, foolish old man wasting his Sunday away blogging about the regional flagshit.
I know the Great Eye in the Sky will see me driving to and from basketball today, as well as over my friend's house for church services otherwise known as football games. In that case I really would rather be here, but socialization has its acceptable costs.
Maybe I'll start up again tonight. Then again, maybe I won't.
Boston police started with just one experimental scanner in 2006, but expanded to a total of 14 this spring, giving the department the capacity to scan as many as 4 million vehicles a year. However, department officials confirm that the program has never been audited to determine how well it works or follows the privacy policy.
Now you see why I vociferously argue against any government program being started. It's first an experiment, then it never goes away for the obviou$ rea$on$.
Never mind that the underlying reasons for spying on us all -- the terrorists -- has been completely forgotten and neglected. Must be because the inside job, false flag, patsy plots have been so plentiful the last ten years they have lost all credibility when coming from a lying, looting government and its mouthpiece jewsmedia.
Investigators at MuckRock, a public-records group that works with the Globe, initially requested the police scan data last January. After initially denying the request, Boston police agreed in April to release a database of plates that had triggered alarms, but without individual plate numbers.
But the records finally released in July were unredacted, revealing full plate numbers and GPS location data for more than 40,000 different vehicles, most of which belonged to private citizens.
MuckRock and the Globe brought the inadvertent disclosure to police attention beginning in September. But it was not until late November that department officials acknowledged the error and asked for the information’s return. The Globe declined, but has no intention of publishing any individual plate information....
No, they just used it to hassle certain people.
Related: Globe Costs Lisa Saunders a Parking Spot
Why did she get singled out?
“If you go too far in collecting information just because you can, it undermines people’s confidence in government,” said Hecht....
That's already gone, and the "debate" surrounding the spying is doing nothing to allay anything. Sorry.
--more--"
Yeah, poor, poor law enforcement.
I know I'm repeating myself, but this sucks. It's a $tatu$ quo paper despite all the revelations. It's a one-day wonder gone down the memory hole, and on a Slow Saturday to boot!
