As someone who worked at Cable News Network from Day one to Day 3,650, I understand the true "news pyramid." At the top: international news. In the middle: local news. At the bottom (the foundation): what's going bad in your refrigerator. So I'm not really all that surprised that our largely U.S. audience couldn't give a rat's ass about the fact that the U.K. is rapidly becoming Orwellian, or even bother to wonder what Eric Arthur Blair was on about. Still, the anti-speeding jihad has opened the door to some truly frightening policing. The latest example [via Pistonheads]: "The number plates of speeding drivers will be flashed up on new ‘smart signs’ in a bid to shame them into slowing down… When fully operational, the system will flash up the number plate of any vehicles exceeding the speed limit as a visual reminder to drivers to slow down. The system includes a large trailer-mounted variable message sign and remote speed and Automatic Number Plate Recognition detection units." Privacy? "The agency said the data gathered will not be used for enforcement and the system does not record any personal data, therefore complying with the Data Protection Act." Call me a tin foil hat wearer, but do Brits really buy that?
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The anti-speed jihad is in full force on both sides of the Atlantic. I was deeply disturbed by a piece on ABCs national news Friday night. The gist of it was “why are people opposed to a national 55mph limit?” There was no questioning of the statistics used for its justification, no question about why all should be forced to save fuel, no representation of anyone who had a different point of view.
One thing’s for sure, I certainly wouldn’t want to be a British subject these days. And, sadly, it won’t be long before I wouldn’t want to be an American citizen either.
Actually, if all they did was flash the number of the plates, that’s ok. Heck, they could do the same to the car, or the licenseholder inside of it! Nothing works better than shame when it comes to enforcement.
Think about it: you’re driving down the highway, some nitwit blows past you at forty over the limit, nearly cuts someone else off, and almost causes an accident. A few seconds later, the billboards above the highway flash “Bob Smith, driving the blue Acura Integra with license plate BCDE 123, has a small p_nis.” for the next five miles. Bonus points if they display arrows pointing to the offender.
Brilliant.
That is very scary indeed!
I never ignore these stories. If they can do it in the Mother Country, who’s to say they won’t bring it here? It would be so easy, so simplistic, and so relatively ineffective for politicians to try to put the burden of responding to global heating, or oil prices, or oil geopolitics by targeting cars.
Let them tax carbon or tax oil.
Ummm 1984, Ingsoc, anyone?
Or should we call Chancellor Sutler to “handle” this?
In the future, they will install an actuator in everyone’s asses, and yes you will HAVE to pay for that, that gives people a lawyer’s approved non-deadly electro shock in your butt when your car goes 1 mph over the limit.
And I thought that living in the 3rd world was bad…
As I reside in the carpark off the west coast of Europe – the only bit of this article I find suprising and without any credability is the statement “The agency said the data gathered will not be used for enforcement ” – I just don’t belive that this govt will allow any opportunity to tax, sorry fine, an individual to be missed. Oh – and MPs will probably be exempt on the grounds of National Security….
We have lots of reasons to believe it’s way worse than this. How many times have we read about cops from the FBI down to the locals infiltrating various ‘anti’ groups such as peace and environment types? It surfaces every few years with appropriate hand slapping and promises not to do it again. And we’ve read about data mining within the DOD. So I fully expect there are cameras along the interstates recording tag numbers and feeding those into data bases of credit/debit card transactions, etc. Conjuring up various threats makes the law enforcement types feel important not to mention pumping up their budgets and bringing lots of new toys. The fact is security can never be 100% certain, so paranoia and power seeking can be used to justify anything without adult supervision guided by respect for civil rights, and civil/constitutional rights isn’t their thing.
We don’t and I wish the government would stop bleeding drivers dry.
Having said that, I was interested to learn that in Sweden they have a website where anyone can look up the details of any other driver… somebody does something stupid and you can look them up and then phone them!
psarhjinian, you’re missing the point. Here’s why — and also why this kind of sh!t always gets implemented with nary a squeal from the public:
Nobody disagrees that some idiot going 40mph over the limit whose aim resembles the slither of a garden snake and who cuts off others shouldn’t be ticketed.
The problem is that government uses this image to justify its vice-grip-like control over good drivers who happen to go over (sometimes way over) ridiculously low speed limits.
“Speed is bad. That’s what the government says. It must be true, no matter the degree of offense. If you disagree, then you must approve of idiots going 40mph over the limit whose aim resembles the slither of a garden snake and who cut off others.”
See how it works? Take an extreme, make it the poster boy of something you want to control, and then watch the dumb masses (hmm…say that fast…see what it sounds like) fall into line.
I came here for the scary ass and/or hyphenization :D
I’m all for the idea public humiliation and shame as a first-line deterrent to more serious crime. But how is this really accomplishing that? I don’t know my OWN plate number, let alone the one for Bob in Accounting. Absolutely silly.
They blame speeders because it’s easier to slow down the speeders than it would be to force the incompetent drivers out of their cars, or at the least, to increase their competency.
It’s the simple, lazy, dumbed-down, feel-good, non-solution that plays to the lowest common denominator of human envy and “get back at them”ism.
I hate to break it you all, but this is EXTREMELY old news.
These types of set-ups have been in the UK for some time now.
The funny thing is, this technology (i.e reading number plates) started off as a thinly veiled threat. In Hemel Hempstead, there was a big sign which said “Welcome to Hemel Hempstead” and your number plate flashed up underneath.
Then it expanded from there!
It is getting absolutely absurd over here and I want to emigrate. Anyone got a basement I could camp out in for a few days…..?
I’m not missing the point, I’m being sarcastic.
Now, I’m nominally a leftist and generally don’t mind speed enforcement in theory–I’ve had strips torn off my hide here for supporting 55mph–but I do think that datamining citizens is a real issue.
Time-of-offence enforcement (it, the camera doesn’t snap a photo unless you’re going over the limit) is one thing. Snapping photos of every car and correlating it with other information on an ongoing basis? That’s very different, and very ugly.
It’s why I don’t mind credit card companies recording where I use my card, but I do mind someone tracking my movements through the day regardless. Or blocking my access to certain websites, versus watching every site I go to.
And yes, one can lead to the other. The slippery slope of surveillance is a big, nasty debate, but my leaning on this is it’s okay to enforce an existing law more efficiently (eg, I don’t want to pay a cop what I machine could do for less); I disagree with going on fishing expeditions to find something someone might be guilty of.
The first is only in effect when someone breaks the law; the second assumes everyone is guilty of something, but we just haven’t found something yet.
It’s a personal comfort level, I guess. I have no expectation of real privacy in a public space, but I do have an expectation of my civil liberties being respected. Someone more libertarian than me would get twitchy at the idea of cameras in general, but that’s his/her perogative.
I recently read that their bureaucracy now has over 1,000 laws allowing them to invade a home for reasons as obscure as to check your plants!
Can you imagine that passing here? There would be some violent results. Good thing that.
“…but my leaning on this is it’s okay to enforce an existing law more efficiently (eg, I don’t want to pay a cop what I machine could do for less);”
This is truly frightening. In essence, we give a machine the status of citizens. In our system of justice there needs to be an accuser, one who faces the conseqences of bearing false witness. There is no way that this has any meaning whatsoever for a machine. This undermines the very heart of our rule of law. For me, this is the real issue. “Efficiency” is a piss-poor reason to discard our most basic rights.
People, this is already here.
For the last few months I’ve been noticing police cars in downtown Manhattan, where I work, equipped with what looked like laser guns, or perhaps lights mounted on the trunk lid. They’re mounted so that they face forwards and out at about 45degrees. I’ve been curious as to what they were for a while, so last Thursday, I saw a Police Officer getting out of his so equipped patrol car, so I asked what the things on the trunk were.
“License Plate Cameras” he replied.
Not just Orwellian — the Chinese Commies and others of their ilk used public shaming sessions to keep people in line.
Say, do you suppose the signs also disclose the vehicle’s speed? Is so, there could be an unintended adverse consequence. No need to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats to get an electronic verification of how fast you car will go.
What shame? I don’t know about the UK but something like that sure wouldn’t work in California. I don’t know anybody, and have heard of very few, who would feel ashamed at going 5, 10, or even 15 mph over the speed limit. As long as you’re not weaving in and out of traffic, I’ve got no problem with you going 85 or 90 mph. There are some desolate places in Eastern Oregon that I have the unfortunate necessity of traveling through to go visit my mom where I don’t think there should even be a speed limit. The last time I travelled that way in early June I counted a grand total of 37 cars on the road in a 74 mile stretch of mostly straight highway where the speed limit is a ridiculous 55 mph. Yet, I don’t dare go over 60 mph since my mom got pulled over and given a $200+ ticket for going 67 in a 55 zone. The people that should be ashamed are the goverment officials and the police implementing this silliness.
You’re talking about a country where people have to spend hundreds of dollars a year renewing their government license to freakin’ watch TV. And where G-Men troll around neighborhoods in tricked-up vans looking to catch violators of said policy.
Nothing like this is going to surprise.
In America, this would just encourage people to speed. Those “Your Speed Is” signs that they randomly place on roads already show that. Folks just speed up to get a higher score!
NY license plate cameras are linked to Albany DMV computers and if there is anything wrong with history of car or driver or insurance they tow the car and if you are in it you get arrested.
Read about it in Dan’s Papers, in the Hamptons, he got busted in 2008 by a camera on a patrol car cruising down the main street of Village of East Hampton, because of a 2 week period in 2006 where his insurer screwed up and showed his paid up insurance was void while his car was shown as registered, but he had traded it in and gave the keys away to dealer.
He got busted on the street, car towed, ticketed etc. The cops told hiim if he got in the car he would get cuffed and charged.
The insurer admitted fault and gave him the full $ for out of pocket, but nothing beyond that. East Hampton says it is doing this for safety but its clearly for the revenue.
You brits who want to move across the pond, stay the hell out of NY.