Big Brother Watch: Vehicle Plate Surveillance System

Is Big Brother using technology that catalogs  license plates numbers, information about our cars  and utilizing facial recognition software to track and monitor our every move? Is this technology infringing upon our privacy? Or is it just the latest in crime fighting technology? Even if in the present is being used to fight crime, could conceivably in the future be used to invade or even eliminate privacy of the common man? Could this be one more step toward a new world order in which we live in some sort of  Orwellian type military police state? 

One company that is selling this system to police forces across the country is called Vigilant Video, headquartered in Livermore, California. 

The system according to it's own website is designed to: 

" detects and records licence plate numbers on moving cars, and compares them in real-time to "Hot-List" data to offer alarms where and when needed - specifically for proactive security." 

The system is basically a data miner for license plates and other pertinent information about peoples movement in their vehicles; including the color, make and model of car.  Other software programs the company offers allows installed cameras to recognize facial features  monitor areas for missing items, items left behind and even can recognize if an object is moving in a direction in opposition to the parameters set by the programmer. 

The cameras are installed on police cars and other strategic locations, such as malls, in high crime neighborhoods, parking lots, on traffic lights and anywhere else law enforcement or any private security firm deems appropriate.  The cameras are programmed to photograph and gather license plate data on every car that passes, then runs this information through a "hot list" looking for any possible violations.  Effectively allowing the police and this private company to know who was in a particular place at a particular time and maintain records that can be called up as law enforcement sees fit. The potential for solving crimes is indisputable. 

The result as far as this technology goes in helping law enforcement solve crimes has already been established. Communities such as Sacramento and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have garnered amazing results in solving car thefts. A private security firm, Vigilant Video, in Sacramento deployed them at Arden mall and reduced car theft dramatically. The system was able to photograph car thief's and link them to the cars they had stolen. It seems as if each year that passes the government adds new technology or bypasses laws and regulations that infringe upon our right to privacy. 

What concerns me, is the potential for misuse. The government by law can't store this information, but the company, Vigilant Video is exempt. They can store the information and as long as they want. Touted as a tool to help fight crime as the primary reason for installation, the possible abuses are easy to imagine. Picture a world with cameras at every corner, every time you leave your home, every place you visit, every person you speak to could be monitored, cataloged and used against you. Could this information be sold to advertisers? 

If it can be monitored it can be controlled. Big brother is indeed watching and as each year passes our freedoms and privacy is being eroded, slowly and methodically.