License plate scanners to notifiy authorites instantly of American's whereabouts.
In their unending battle to deter illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism, U.S. authorities already have beefed up border security with drug-sniffing dogs, aircraft and thousands more agents manning interior checkpoints.
Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has decided it wants more, and the Justice Department agency doesn't care whether someone has even set foot in Mexico.
Clusters of what at first appear to be surveillance cameras have begun turning up in recent months on the Southwest border, and while some of the machines are merely surveillance cameras, others are specialized recognition devices that automatically capture license-plate numbers and the geographic location of everyone who passes by, plus the date and time.
The DEA confirms that the devices have been deployed in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico. It has plans to introduce them farther inside the United States.
Special Agent Ramona Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the DEA's Phoenix division, said the information collected by the devices is stored for up to two years and can be shared with other federal agencies and local police. She declined to say how many have been installed or where, citing safety concerns.
"It's simply another surveillance method used to monitor and target vehicles that are commonly used to transport drugs, bulk cash and weapons north and south," Sanchez said.
Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said she is concerned about how police technology could outpace legal standards.
"The problem is we really have no reassurance it's going to be focused on the bad guys," Soler Meetze said.
Officials elsewhere have said no thanks when asked to install license-plate scanners. Utah lawmakers balked at the idea when federal authorities broached it in May. The plan was for two local sheriffs to receive them as a donation, and the machines would then be installed to record travelers driving on a pair of interstates that connect in southwest Utah.
Public outcry over the threat to privacy and civil liberties led Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel to "just give up" on the proposal. The sticking point for critics, he said, was that personal information belonging to law-abiding citizens would flow to Washington and be kept at a storage facility in Virginia for months on end. Noel said all he wanted to do was catch criminals. The DEA has since backed off, too, he said.
"(Critics) think that it's Big Brother. I was referred to as George Orwell, '1984,' and the whole nine yards," Noel said. "They could not understand what the technology was all about and how it actually worked."
Police can be alerted automatically in real time when a wanted individual passes by one of the devices. Agencies around the country have been affixing the machines to the outside of patrol cars and receive an in-car notification if they come upon a license plate connected to a wanted felon or stolen vehicle. Vast amounts of historical data also may be searched and used to map where someone has been, making the intelligence value of license-plate readers attractive to law enforcement.
David Callister, a DPS Border Crimes Unit officer, uses a set of the agency's 25 plate-reader cameras to track stolen vehicles south of Phoenix. He said the system supplements everyday police work, freeing him from the routine checks that used to consume his time.
"Three years ago, all I had in my car was a radio to talk to a dispatcher, and I had to wait my turn," Callister said. "If I was lucky, I could run 10 vehicles a day," he said. "Now, with the plate reader and my computer, I've had days when I've read over 8,000."
http://www.nctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/dea-installs-license-plate-recognition-devices-near-southwest-border/article_a628fce4-86c8-589d-8c86-18dbfa216b43.html
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/dea-installs-license-plate-recognition-devices-near-southwest-border/
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/11/23/20081123autotheft1123.htm
Ocularis license plate recognition brochure.
http://www.onssi.com/downloads/brochures/Ocularis.pdf
Websites that offer license plate recognition equipment:
Smart Security Camera
http://smartsecuritycamera.com/license-plate-recognition.html
Vigilante Video
http://www.vigilantvideo.com/about.htm
Pips Technology http://pipstechnology.com/home_us/
ELSAG North America http://www.elsag.com/index.asp