There are only two roads going in and out of Tiburon, California, a feature the Tiburon city council wants to exploit to give citizens a sense of total security. Accordingly, they have spent $200,000 on six cameras which will record the license plate numbers of every car driving in and out. Though Tiburon is located on the tip of a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay in toney Marin County, and has low crime statistics (especially compared to the greater Bay Area), council members insist that this only makes the impact of crime more noticable. “If you’re out and about the way I am, every day you run into someone who was affected by a crime or knows someone who was,” Tiburon Mayor Alice Fredricks tells NPR. “So it’s real.”And though cameras are supposed to purge their data every eight hours, UC Berkley technology and public policy expert Jennifer King explains that such initiatives rarely maintain their original parameters, and that data can even be subpoenaed for civil proceedings like divorce trials.

They may start today by keeping it eight hours, but I’ll almost bet you that what they’ll find is that somebody will come back and go, ‘If only we had the data from those cameras.’ We call it ‘scope creep’ in the technology world. That scope can really crawl, really grow very quickly.

[Hat Tip: ClutchCarGo]

Accidents rose after the installation of a red light camera at one major intersection in Baytown, Texas. The private company American Traffic Solutions began issuing automated tickets at the intersection of Garth and Baker Roads on March 21, 2008. Since then, safety has not improved at the controversial camera location.

According to a brochure published by the city, “red light safety cameras” were installed because, “There have been more than 1,000,000 accidents and more than 1000 deaths attributed to red light runners that occur each year in the United States.” Presumably, the cameras are meant to reduce the number of collisions and deaths at Baytown intersections.

This has not happened according to accident reports from all three monitored approaches of the Garth and Baker intersection from eighteen months before the installation of cameras compared to the same period afterward. Instead, the total number of collisions grew by 11 percent. Although proponents of cameras frequently suggest that the increase in rear end collisions (31 percent in this case) is offset by the reduction in “more serious” collisions, the data show, to the contrary, that there was no reduction at all in the number of serious injury accidents.

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Traffic camera companies operating in Arizona may be committing a crime by operating without a private investigator’s license, a newly released memorandum to the state legislature explained. The non-partisan Arizona Legislative Council, the legislature’s official source for drafting and reviewing legislation, looked at the licensing question on behalf of state Representative Sam Crump (R-Anthem).

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A judge yesterday forced the settlement of a traffic camera company-backed lawsuit with the city of College Station, Texas over the public’s November 3 vote to ban red light cameras. Although terms of the deal have not been released, the city council voted 4-0 on November 11 to abide by the results of the election, leaving American Traffic Solutions (ATS) with no hope of continuing its ticketing program without a costly legal battle.
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Maybe Auto Bild missed the memo that police fleet Ford Crown Victorias have been called “Interceptor” since 1992. Either way, they’re arguing that Ford’s new “all-new Interceptor” should be a production version of 2006’s Ford Interceptor Concept. “With it the police’s new transportation would not only be more modern, but also properly cool,” they deadpan. “Ford has to assert itself to remain the dominant supplier of service vehicles. Starting with the Interceptor wouldn’t be bad: the concept looks cool. Next to it, the Crown Victoria looks like a real dinosaur,” is the sage conclusion. Not to mention a luxuriously spacious vehicle. Sorry guys, but short of the Interceptor’s influence on the Taurus (which will most likely underpin the “all new Interceptor”), this one sounds way too cool for reality.

GM surprised more than a few observers when it announced it would build a police-only Caprice model, based on the global RWD Chevy Lumina/ Holden Statesman. “Why build a fleet-only model and miss out on some private volume?” we asked at the time. Well, it looks like Ford’s about to do the same thing. A presser announces the development of a “purpose-built Police Interceptor specially designed and engineered to replace the Ford Crown Victoria law enforcement vehicle lineup in 2011.” Given that time table, “all new” is at least partial exaggeration (as it so often is). And it’s possible that this was motivated in part by the cool reaction to news of a possible Taurus-based Interceptor. GM went to Australia for their police-duty RWD platform, might Ford do the same with a Falcon-based interceptor? Or is this the prelude to Panther 2.0? Or, as common sense seems to dictate, is the Interceptor “all new” simply because there’s just never been an Interceptor based on this Taurus before? If Ford is really engineering a dedicated fleet vehicle for US production with no civilian counterpart, they’re as crazy as GM is. D3 it is.

The recent arrest of a Ford employee on charges of industrial espionage may have been enough to scuttle Ford’s sale of Volvo to Chinese firm Geely. Or, as Bertel Schmitt reports, perhaps the spy story was just a convenient excuse to get more money out of the deal. But whether as a legitimate concern or strategic fearmongering, industrial espionage is hot right now. The Freep reports three former GM-Daewoo employees have been charged with spycraft, for allegedly transferring “critical GM technology” to Russian automaker tagAZ. The technology in question: engine and component designs for Daewoo’s outgoing (J-200 model) Lacetti, predecessor to the Cruze. And GM claims tagAz’s new C-100 sedan (above) looks a little too similar to the Lacetti in question. “It’s pretty close, if not dead on,” say GM-Daewoo spokesfolks. “The J-200 may not be a new vehicle for a lot of developing countries, but for a lot of emerging markets, it’s a very aspirational vehicle.” And it’s been a best-seller in Russia. TagAZ denies that it stole designs from Daewoo, saying it spent four years and $250m developing the C-100. But it also hired “a number” of former Daewoo engineers, according to GM, which is probably the most legitimate way to steal a good design. But with GM possibly wavering on the Opel deal, will this latest espionage raise doubts about the wisdom of selling Opel to another Russian firm? It probably should.

The AP [via Yahoo] reports that the FBI has begun using facial recognition software to dig through DMV photo archives searching for fugitives, causing new worries for privacy advocates. “Everybody’s participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver’s license,” the ACLU’s Christopher Calabrese explains. Drivers licenses, argues Calabrese are rapidly becoming more than, well, driver’s licenses. “Now you need them to open a bank account. You need them to be identified everywhere. And suddenly they’re becoming the de facto law enforcement database,” he says. State and Federal laws prohibit the FBI from collecting and storing DMV records as a law-enforcement database, so the pilot program in North Carolina is taking place within the state DMV with its full cooperation.

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Bloomberg reports that the US International Trade Commission has launched a probe of alleged patent violations which could result in the banning of all Toyota hybrids from the US market. Paice LLC won a 2005 civil suit against Toyota, in which Paice’s founder Alex Severinsky sought a court order banning the sale of Toyota’s Prius, Highlander and Lexus RX400h hybrids. Instead, an appeals judge awarded Paice $4.3m in damages, and ordered Toyota pay Paice a $100 royalty per hybrid sold in the US. In the current case before the ITC, Paice claims that Toyota’s Camry, third-generation Prius, Lexus HS250h sedan and Lexus RX450h are “are materially the same” and violate the same patents as those in its first case. If Paice can convince the ITC that Toyota indeed violated its patents, he will still need to prove that the little-known company has a market to protect. But Paice doesn’t actually want Toyota to be banned from selling cars. In the words of one patent attorney,  an “injunction would have given Paice strong leverage to negotiate a lucrative licensing deal with Toyota…Paice always felt that their technology was worth a lot more than [$100 per car] to Toyota.” Read More >

The Detroit News reports that nastiness between Chrysler and its former overlords at Daimler could prevent the much-needed (by ChryCo) launches of new versions of the 300/Charger and Grand Cherokee/Durango. Apparently production of these new products can’t take place until Daimler and Chrysler agree to terms for Daimler-supplied components. Chrysler needs to resolve its legal differences with Daimler within 20 days in order to prevent delays to the roll-out of the Grand Cherokee/Durango. If the conflict continues, Chrysler admits it won’t be able to find a new supplier until January 2011. The Grand Cherokee/Durango and 300/Charger are planned to be Chrysler’s only 2010 debuts.

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Like most states, Washington uses an implied consent statute to punish anyone who refuses to submit to a breathalyzer test upon being accused of drunk driving. In a ruling last Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court upheld the right of police to use force to remove blood from a motorist even after an informed decision to refuse the test has been made. The high court argued that recent changes to the law essentially eliminated the need to seek consent when a warrant is obtained.

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Nola.com reports that New Orleans’ public defenders office has yet to see any revenue from red light cameras, and will have to shut down by March. Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton made the announcement, saying the city’s ability to provide 6th amendment-mandated public defense options would be shut down between March and July of 2010. Moving the public defender’s office to a red light camera revenue-based funding model was a relatively recent decision by Mayor Ray Nagin. The public defender’s office represents over 88 percent of New Orleans’ 220,000 criminal and traffic court defendants each year.

ChryCo finally acknowledges that denying outstanding liability claims while taking taxpayer money was kind of a dick move.

In a letter sent today to Members of Congress, Chrysler Group LLC
announced that the company will accept product liability claims on vehicles
manufactured by Chrysler LLC (now OldCarco LLC) before June 10, 2009, and
involved in accidents on or after that date. On June 10, 2009, Chrysler
Group purchased substantially all of the assets of Old Carco.

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Amidst a lawsuit by Old Chrysler creditors accusing Daimler of stripping Chrysler’s assets comes another suit against the German automaker, this time by New Chrysler. Automotive News [sub] reports that Chrysler actually owes Daimler about $78 million in volume shortfall payments for 2.2-liter diesel engines supplied by Daimler. Because Chrysler is balking on those payments, Daimler stopped delivery of steering columns and torque converters, as a way of pressuring Chrysler to make good on its payments. But Chrysler claims that “the volume shortfall payment issue was resolved in an April 17, 2009, pre-petition agreement that settled a number of disputes between Daimler and the old Chrysler.” As a result, “Chrysler Group believes that Daimler’s misconduct is designed to extort a settlement by wrongfully withholding crucial parts that Daimler has contractually committed to supply to Chrysler Group,” say ChryCo spokesfolks. Grand Cherokee production at Chrysler’s Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit is threatened by the supply dispute, as is Dodge Charger and Challenger and Chrysler 300/300C production in Brampton, Ontario.

The Freep reports that Chrysler bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez has given creditors permission to sue Daimler for diverting $9 billion from the automaker two years ago. Gonzalez only put one restriction on the suit: creditors may not use government funds for the effort. According to the Freep report, the suit is being brought by “AutoNation Inc., the nation’s largest auto retailer; DARCARS Imports Inc., a Maryland-based dealer group, the UAW and two people with personal injury cases pending against Chrysler.” What we still don’t understand is exactly which “important assets” Daimler allegedly stripped, and how they were worth $9 billion. The allegations have apparently been redacted to the point that they are not identifiable, and Daimler asserts the claims are “without merit.” Since Daimler is already out over $37 billion on its Chrysler misadventure, it could be hard to prove that Daimler benefited from any aspect of the transaction.