Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey

[GatoLover]

Wow! What would Orwell think of this?

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey
From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 22 December 2005

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.

[stepnw1f]

1. He Would Say Fascism is Fascism

And the GOP is a front for fascism itself.

[ny_liberal]

59. Scary UK

This is totally scary

[orleans]

77. a "friend" of mine told me a couple years ago that israel was already

doing this. she was very excited about it (you know, it was after 9/11) and she said: "isn't that great?" and she meant it.

i said: "sure if you want to live in a fucking police state. i personally think it sucks....what's wrong with you?"

[TheBaldyMan]

2. God, as if we weren't under heavy enough surveillance already.

UK is that most saturated place on earth as far as CCTV goes. Heaven knows what will happen when s/o asks for all data held on them via the FIA(Freedom of Information Act) they'll get every car journey they've made in the last two years! It's bad enough with facial recognition software and body-language readers that 'identify' would-be shoplifters, as if it protected us against the July bombings in London.
The thing that REALLY pisses me off is that I'm going to be paying for it and it doesn't sound cheap.
(edit after reading the cost)
£24 million my arse. If it's like the other recent ICT projects of the british government there will be a 200% cost overrun and the bloody thing won't work.

[DavidMS]

64. I am going to agree

I suspect that ths system will be just like any other large scale survaliance / anti crime program. Massive cost over runs, poor oversight and if we are lucky some plea deals for fraud amoungst the contractors who built it. We have seen it in the US also (Red Light Cameras, etc)

[toymachines]

3. The age of Big Brother has really come to pass

Thats one of the most orwellian things i have ever heard of.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. that is, until the electricity becomes too dear,

I guess.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

57. Then it'll be this:

[realisticphish]

5. wow

*scratches the UK off of the 'escape bush's america' location list*

[rooboy]

6. Prediction: 'car swapping' will become commonplace. n/t

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. car swapping will become a felony

shortly thereafter.

[pitohui]

40. how do you figure?

so the cheating husband swaps his car w. another cheating husband, um, he has just shared his secret w. another in his social circle & guaranteed that the gossip will get back to his wife even faster than if he'd just gone wherever in his car & quietly let the gov't snap its pix

would you swap yr car so yr friend could go somewhere questionable? would you want to explain to yr friend why you were taking his car to cover up for YOUR secret?

car swapping might be tried but it wouldn't protect yr privacy, it would get yr secrets out among yr circle of friends faster than just using yr own car would

now maybe the rate of car theft would go up, might as well steal someone else's car if you're on yr way to commit robbery anyway, but only time will tell i think

they say you're on camera 784 times a day in las vegas, you notice how no one goes there because of it and if they must go there they always behave in the most circumspect possible manner to protect their secrets financial and sexual...oh wait a minute, no they don't

the sad reality is that only a tiny minority of americans give a damn abt personal privacy, and as far as i can tell, in other countries the number of people who care abt personal privacy is even less than that



if people cared abt privacy, "reality" tv & jerry springer would be of no interest to anyone

the old WASP ideal of you only get yr name in paper when you're born, when you're married, & when you die is dead, today you are only real if you're on camera

[PDJane]

7. That's an interesting idea.......

and may go to the idea of an energy ration. That was one of the ideas put forth by the Blair government to combat global warming.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey

21 December 2005 21:10
Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey
From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 22 December 2005
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.
(snip/...)

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

[InkAddict]

10. and charged for the privilege I might add

http://www.notolls.org.uk/roadpricing.htm

The road pricing idea is not new, as Britain's Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, floated it in 2004 as a feature of his 10 year Transport plan July 2004 plan
More details of the latest plans were revealed on Thursday 9th June 2005, when Mr Darling gave a speech to the Social Market Foundation.

The idea is to scrap fuel duty and vehicle duty and introduce tolls on all roads. All vehicles would have boxes monitored by satellites. Tolls would vary according to the road and the time. The government say that tolls would range from tuppence to £1.34 a mile. (Tuppence by the way is all that the Government spends per vehicle mile travelled, so they would make a VAST profit on most roads.) Pilot schemes would start in 5 years and the full scheme in 10 years

[Judi Lynn]

11. And why do people just ACCEPT these things?

_Bush drags out weapons from hell which can drop you in your tracks while you are simply attending an anti-war protest , and Britain decides to watch EVERY move everyone makes.

WHY do they get a pass on this? Are we all really this stupid and compliant? Holy smokes!

[Protagoras]

74. Question worth repeating...why do they accept this there?

are the british that embracing of fascism? I suspect the Irish would tear the cameras down and piss on em. And when I was last in London there was a huge public outcry over Bush and his brainless absurdities. But they sit quietly while their government stuffs cameras up their collective asses?

I'm really confused by that country...almost as confused, I suspect, as the rest of the world is with us here in America.

[lovuian]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 22 December 2005
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

more...
Now if your Princess Diana the video feed is unexplainably blank... Doesn't this give your the creeps...

[tatertop]

12. fuck that shit

no more England for me

[AX10]

13. I guess I won't be going to England anymore.

Oh, and what a "suprise", the police back this idea. :puke:

[GrumpyGreg]

14. This is absolutely chilling. I often thought of getting in my car

and disappearing for a few days. (Sort of an "I'll show them" trip")

Guess I wouldn't be able to do that in the UK.

Are we next?

[Benbow]

51. You are terrified by this but not by your Patriot Act - bizarre n/t

[neuvocat]

15. If they ever do that here

then I'm gone.

[AGKISTRODON]

22. Hard to do outside the cities

All the more reason for me to live out here in the boonies!

[sarcasmo]

66. They already do it with cameras mounted on street lights.

We don't monitor every car, but the time will come. With satellite imagery and the cameras mounted on street lights by 2010 this will happen in our new AMERIKA.

[anotherdrew]

16. yeah - I know

[tuvor]

17. No British opposition?

I can't believe they're letting this go without a fight.

I'll bet george is jealous of tony right now.

[tenshi816]

23. Give it time.

This is the first I've heard of it myself.

[omulcol]

78. First time I've heard of this ...

and I live in England !

But here's something for the stupid politicians to think about.

What will the police do when real criminals ... or duh ... terrorists ... change the number plates of their cars ? By the time they realise it ... the crime will long have been committed - but where oh where are those criminals now ???

They'll get away with the high crime, leaving the majority of motorists to be hounded by the police for trivial offences.
Oh we know people drive without tax or insurance , we know it's wrong , but usually it's those who can least afford to pay that are the offenders. Making the poorest pay the most is what governents excel in, and this is just another money making venture that will go through without any fuss from the British public at all. They are more concerned with football and soap operas. than civil liberties.

[The Roux Comes First]

18. Now That's What I Call Surveillance!

This is fascinating on so many levels. The bureaucracy and civil service required to process and cross-reference the information is mindboggling. NSA-like, even! And, yes, out there somewhere there's a chance ofclaiming a few needles in that haystack of data, after paying $100,000+ a year to a few thousand FTEs. But I'm also certain there will be plenty of freewheeling folks who will find those cameras an irresistible target for vandalism. Who wouldn't?? And for the few of us still trying to face reality and all its' charms, doesn't this ring a bell? Old J Edgar was constantly knicker-knotted about us citizens finding out about secrets that were obviously in wide circulation everywhere else in the world. Of course his own proclivities and criminality were probably at the heart of that, but here again, the perps in this case will have no problem fixing their plates. It will be Sally and Sam that get caught for having a mean anti-Blair bumpersticker on their car.

[nicknameless]

19. I can't believe the Brits would ever stand for this.

I guess * will be looking to implement that here too.

[TygrBright]

20. Well, well... whomever gets the camera-proof glare coating concession...

...for those British license plates is going to make a nice little packet.

speculatively,
Bright

[WinkyDink]

21. Ostensibly, it's for instantaneous crowded-roads advisories and changes.

Simple traffic-pattern monitoring.
Except not.

[lapfog_1]

24. Two years ago

I thought of the same system for the US. Many cop cameras and intersection cameras are going digital, I thought to just add some software to the camera system so the the camera is on all the time (currently the dashboard camera only turns on in a number of circumstances, like lights going
on or the gun being removed from the holder). Anyway the camera is on, every time it sees a license,
it snaps a still, does plate recognition, ans stores the info away, Whenever the cruiser returns
to the barn, it automatically (wirelessly) uploads the info and that is transmitted (plate number,
time, GPS location, etc) to a central database.

I did a lot of research on the topic, and started a prototype system.

After a while, I decided that I wouldn't do it. It's just too powerful and the potential for
misuse is too great. Amber alerts and the rest of the good it could do be damned.
Anyway, I figured then that someone else would eventually do it. I hope we decide to make it
illegal (there is nothing preventing this now. It's completely legal and is the same as if
the officer, being incredibly diligent, made notes in a notebook as he travels around town).

Sigh.

[TheBaldyMan]

80. some regional British police already use an in car system

that recognises number plates compares it to a database on a laptop and will notify the officers if any wanted/stolen plates are captured, the camera can be running all the time and only needs to store the last few seconds on disk. Permanent recordings are only need , for instance, if a pursuit starts or a vehicle is pulled over.

Nice when you know Osamas registration and he decides to drive down the high street. Most of the time it spots people with expired road-tax or insurance. I don't know how many terrorists have been apprehended by this technology but rest assured if Al-Zarqawi comes to Britain he'll be arrested within minutes of his road tax expiring.

[bettyellen]

25. London itself has 500,000 cameras on the streets....

it is estimated the average londoner shows up on film 300 times a day.
They perfected and sold this technology to the public as an anti-terrorist tactic. Remember, the IRA?
Citizens in West Belfast grew up being spied on.

[pitohui]

41. in vegas it's 784 times a day

at least that's what they say at the kenneth cole in caesar's forum shoppes

i haven't noticed that it stops anyone from going to vegas, & it won't stop anyone who goes to london from going there in future

we are over-reacting to what is a done deal

orwell's working title for 1984 was 1948

somehow people live w. it and continue to have perfectly nice lives & to feel perfectly free, the camera doesn't actually steal anyone's soul

[bettyellen]

44. it was kinda different in west belfast....

where the police would boast to residents they knew every detail of your life, and basically did.
it can be quite intimidating i think if it's your neighborhood as opposed to a place you're just visiting. just the sound of the helicopters 24/7 was unnerving.

[pitohui]

48. i'll tell you a secret

people actually live in vegas as well, over a million of them, imagine that

as for bad cops, which are everywhere, boasting that they knew every detail of your life, i would take such attempts to impress w. the proverbial grain of salt

i've received copies of investigations done on me, which were so inaccurate as to be falling-down-funny

when they are collecting all that much information, they are going to get it wrong anyway because believe it or not they have better things to do than to focus on me, me, me

my mentor used to say, you wouldn't care so much abt what other people thought of you if you realized how seldom they did

[bettyellen]

49. well comparing vegas to west belfast's ghettos is quite silly.

you musn't know ANY of the history if you could joke so and compare the two places a. Maybe you need a mentor who'd tell you to get some backround on a subject before making light of it.
and that quote is about people being self involved and gossip, not much of a contribution to this discusssion either, but if you think it has to do with the FBI or something.... whatever...
:shrug:

[Hekate]

26. Anonymity is a thing of the past. Pass the ID chips, please.

Why do I find that so creepy?

I think culture is a kind of barometer of peoples' response to this idea. People from small towns, villages, and tribes are never anonymous in their own cultures -- they are always known, and that's security and comfort for most.

People from the highly mobile modern world, big cities, a lot of Americans generally -- we think of ourselves as individuals, and when we drive about or walk in the cities we do not expect to be stopped and greeted by everyone who passes us by. We are known at either end of our journeys, not along the way. We expect to be anonymous in crowds, and there's an expectation of freedom that goes along with it.

Most of us who operate in that world are not even aware of how little true anonymity there is left. Cameras have proliferated inside and outside of buildings. My son was chatting with me long distance while working on his computer the other day, and suddenly told me he was seeing our house as viewed from satellite. :wow:

Your pets can have tiny ID chips the size of a rice grain -- how long before people will be demanding their children be similarly outfitted, or even, to push it further, how long before some ballot proposition called Timmy's Law goes through? TV ads of tearful mommy: "If only our Timmy had one, the EMTs would have known who he was and that he had diabetes. When they finally identified him, It Was Too Late. Protect your child. Pass Timmy's Law."

The idea of continually being monitored creeps me out. The auto industry is apparantly planning to make On-Star or the like standard eventually. It's very easy to track cell phone usage. A thousand miles from home I used my Von's grocery store card and the clerk addressed me by name.

The Global Village used to sound warmer than the above makes me feel.

Hekate
considering becoming a Luddite

[Matilda]

27. Even John Howard hasn't thought of this one yet.

Gotta give him time, I guess.

[Moloch]

28. Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security..."
- Benjamin Franklin

[Deep13]

29. wow

Holy shit, it's a spy nation. When will they require that people get bar codes on their foreheads?

[Lerkfish]

31. chip implants will occur within 2 years.

in limited fashion, of course, and then they'll tout how it saved an alzheimer's victim from being lost in the woods, then it'll be ALL hospital patients because it'll be easier to access their medical data, then it will be everyone.

just try not to get the number 666 if you can help it.

[superconnected]

37. it's enevitable.

However I think prisoners will be first.

[sarcasmo]

67. This will make me Canadian when the chip implant becomes law.

[orwell]

30. Message form Orwell...

...Congratulations fellow countrymen. You have officially become proles!

Anyone who objects...Room 101

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

52. Proles actually were largely undisturbed. You're thinking "outer party".

[Mad_Dem_X]

69. Yep - I'd like to be a prole

They can just go about their business and not be brainwashed...

[savemefromdumbya]

32. Bliar = neocon in sheeps clothing

[amandabeech]

33. This is truly, truly frightening.

Unfortunately, the Bushies would love it.

In the U.S., a measure like this would undoubtedly run into serious legal and political trouble.

Also, there would be an absolute rash of license plate thefts and counterfeiting.

But that would mean more new jobs!

[Another Bill C.]

34. Where's the outrage?

If the British people accept this, they've become too much like their sheep.

[Benbow]

50. I think it is an ingenious idea and much better than ID cards

I don't have a car. I use buses and trains - or cycle or walk.

[Megahurtz]

35. Gad.

Freaky!:scared:

Who's next?

And WTF is the point?:wtf:

[Miss Chybil]

36. I wonder how many people will start walking?

I suppose it doesn't matter with face recognition technology. Of course, one could turn Muslim, if one were a female and cover one's face, but I'm suspecting that will be against the law soon, as well. Ah... democracy. Liberty, or death? I'm choking.

[ozone_man]

39. You'll get the chip implant next.

If you walk into a restricted area, the chip will start hurting. :scared:

[pitohui]

42. yes, the point is to get people walking

the purpose of monitoring where the cars are going is to make car drivers pay the congestion fee and other fees for use of the roads & the fair way is to charge people for the use they actually make of the roads

london has great public transportion and cars are really just a nuisance there, but since it is a free nation & the mayor can't just throw all obnoxious auto drivers making a display of conspicuous consumption in some mao-ist jail, then he can gently discourage having the place over-run by autos by having these fees

england is v. much a society w. a great heritage of walking, their program of public footpaths in the countryside is truly impressive, while in usa we are putting up "no trespassing" signs everywhere for reasons of insurance & liability so people can't walk, how the hell free is that?

yes, i am a walker, i applaud programs that get people back on their feet and promote a safe environment for walking

why should the right of the auto always, forever, come first before any other consideration?

there may be method to this seeming madness

[Miss Chybil]

43. So, you think being put under surveillance 24/7 is justifiable because

it will encourage people to walk? I'm all for walking myself, but as I, sarcastically, mentioned in my post, they can surveil your face now, as well.

As far as the US being a free country... that's a joke. Their is NOTHING free here.

On edit: I take that back. There are a couple free things here - parking at the mall and Wal-Mart.

[pitohui]

46. facial recognition don't work

your face is surveilled in the usa if you ever enter a major casino property

it don't work, i've been called everything but a white woman, the only time the program comes up w. my real name is when someone in the casino already knows my real name

if you are going to be afraid, at least learn a little abt what you're afraid of

facial recognition is mostly a hoax, it is software sold at high cost that doesn't do what it says, this is why they never seem to actually find any criminals in the crowds at the superbowl, it isn't because criminals don't like taking in a game of football once in awhile

[bettyellen]

45. Britain also has a history of oppression and colonialism, and the cameras

were in the Catholic ghetto of Belfast well before they were in London. And not because they wanted "the croppies" to go on walkies, either.
"Security" is the rationale for the intrusive technology, otherwise tolls would be used.

[pitohui]

47. tolls create more congestion, the congestion charge reduces it

collecting tolls, having toll booths or machines is incredibly clumsy and cumbersome, and it creates an issue w. the free flow of traffic

anyway your movement is trackable from your toll tag also or so the professional paranoids would have you believe, it seems clear the toll toker must know where i go and how often, else how do they know when to send me a new bill?

anyway if you have a cell phone, the feds already know exactly where you are, so it's a lost cause

we may wish it was otherwise but it's a democracy, and the majority of people do not value privacy or people would not sell their private information to get $5 off on their groceries every week

[superconnected]

38. How long till we're tried for thought crimes.

with the patriot act flagging us for what books we check out, and NSA flagging people for attended peaceful antiwar demonstrations, I'm guessing not long.

I bet america will implement all of the devices listed above and declare us "terrorists", for coming on Du and voicing dissent. We'll be forced to get chipped and we'll be in guantanamo getting tried for thought crimes by 2010.

btw, you words are being logged.

[Saint Stephen]

53. The Brits have a long history of giving up their freedoms without a fight

Anytime something bad happens, they give up huge chunks of freedom. Look how easily they gave up their firearms. Only a country like Britain would ban a movie like A Clockwork Orange for 25 years and have most of their populace agree with that.

[TheBaldyMan]

58. I must disagree

We did not 'give up' our firearms, british people on the whole look on gun nuts as rather boorish, after the Dunblane massacre hardly a voice was raised to defend the banning of handguns. In subsequent years there have been periodic amnesties for all types of weaponry in recognition that the streets are safer with less firearms present on them.
Clockwork Orange wasn't banned, it was withdrawn from circulation shortly after the tabloid press started to blame the film for a rise in crime. 25 Clockwork Orange free years continued to see increasing violent crime and gave the lie to that premise. IMHO it's not a very good film (or book), but then I've never been a big Burghess fan.

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TheBaldyMan]

65. we don't have a 'gun culture' in Britain

Britons didn't have any guns to give up. Before the hand gun ban per capita gun ownership in the UK (excluding farmers and gamekeepers) must have been a tiny fraction compared to the USA. Even though it was ridiculously easy to get a license people didn't feel the need to own one. Personally although I have trained in weapons handling myself ( in the army ) the only time I've carried a gun is when I've been issued with one, I've never felt the need to own or carry one privately, in fact most people in the UK that I've spoken to who think it would be really cool to have free access to firearms have some things in common - they've never handled one, aren't trained in and don't recognise the responsibilty that comes with handling firearms.
I sympathised with sports shooters in the UK when the ban was brought and could have been dealt with just as effectively with better screening for gun-ownership but after the collapse of Yugoslavia and the fall of the wall my streets were inundated with cheap, lethal military-grade weaponry I came to the opinion that my streets are safer with less firearms present on them. Regardless if they are in the hands of criminals or the police. My local police force is notoriously trigger happy, their infamous ARG (Armed Response Groups) shoot to kill and shoot on the slightest pretext. Here in Britain I can only envy the standard of training that US police receive along with the procedures in place following use of firearms whilst on duty.
I do recognise that the question of gun ownership in the USA differs by several degrees of magnitude but I say that more guns equals more wounding/maiming/deaths whether intentional or accidental, official or criminal. The converse, less guns means less death also holds true.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

54. This is from The Onion right?

Please say its true.

(kidding)

[TankLV]

55. So that means they're all LYING when they claimed they would NEVER use

these cameras for such a thing, that they were ONLY for traffic monitering to keep traffic moving, etc? when they first installed them, and when they're trying to install new systems here?

Hmmmmm.

And they called US "conspiracy nuts" and "tinfoilers".

[Clara T]

56. Who will be second?

The kingdom of Florida down in Jebland?



http://www.brusselstribunal.org/index.htm

[adolfo]

63. Almost there

We have cameras at many intersections facing each direction. It should be a matter of time. ;)

[guruoo]

60. PhotoBlocker™

(See the videos on the right side of the page.)
:headbang:
http://www.phantomplate.com
PhantomPlate, INC manufactures and sells passive anti-radar and anti-red-light camera products. Our flagship product, PhotoBlocker™ Spray has been independently tested by Denver Police Department, Dutch Police, Fox News, Swedish TV, Australian TV, British TV and thousands of satisfied customers in six continents. The conclusive results proved that PhotoBlocker Spray is a proven defense against red light and speed cameras: "Surprisingly Effective..." says Fox News, Chicago Sun Times puts it "...beats traffic camera in a flash", "the latest tool to help drivers, police are not amused" says Denver's ABC 7, "it will hide your license plate from red-light cameras" as reported by the CBS Channel 5, San Fransisco, and also covered on the front page of the Washington Post as yet another positive testimonial of the effectiveness of the Photoblocker spray.




(

[Mad_Dem_X]

70. Cool! nt

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[0007]

68. bttft

[Atman]

71. What if this story is at least partially fake?

I remember a program run in Hartford about 10 years ago. "They" had installed video cameras at most of the biggest interchanges and exits along I-91 and I-84 in the city. When cars crashed into the water or sand-filled barriers, if the driver survived he was greated with a sign hanging on the video camera post claiming that the accident had been recorded, and that they will be responsible for the cost of the barrier repair. It was quite a revelation and stirred up quite a bit of controversy. But not nearly as much as when it finally leaked out that such a program proved too expensive and difficult to manage, so they had actually installed empty camera shells at all these interchanges. The thinking was, if people THINK they are being watched, they behave even as if they actually were being watched.

So, what if some part of Tony Poodle's plan is similar to Hartford...tell the masses "we're watching you 24/7!" How will anyone know otherwise?

[superconnected]

73. It will be easier to enact now.

Fixing cameras is not a lot different that people who drive around fixing stop lights.

Also with face recognition softare now-a-days, they'll easily transfer it to license plate recognition to convert it to text and maintain the locations as they change in a central database that pre-sorts to info and sticks it in each owners record.

I don't think it's going to be anywhere near as hard to maintain as it was 10 years ago. Even the responsibility for correcting road problems can be fixed by making laws protecting the gov and releasing them from responsibility.

In america there's talk of laws that you can't sue the medical establishments, challenge votes, and make higher gov officials liable, why would england not enact the same things we talk about here. It's us who are used to a "democracy".

[Stella_Artois]

72. Make that the second country

Commentary--Trust federal bureaucrats to take a good idea and transform it into a frightening proposal to track Americans wherever they drive.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go.



http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5982762.html

[Sven77]

75. happening here too

they will use the security infrastructure to spy on americans, then tax commuters by the mile. cameras going up on all the traffic lights. rfid's in all the registration stickers. highways will become privately owned by corporations.

E-tracking, coming to a DMV near you

[gulliver]

76. "camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites"

GPS satellites don't work that way. People think the satellites monitor things when it is actually the "things" that monitor the satellites.

On edit: BTW, I (for one) thought of this years ago. You can essentially track everyone's whereabouts based on their travel. This is similar to what Bush is doing tracking calls and e-mails. Same principle. Create an audit trail of routes and identities...

[The_Casual_Observer]

79. Won't be long before your boss will know where you go after work

Infromation like that could be "useful" to them.