Mayor Richard M. Daley wants to take his beloved security cameras on the road.
The Chicago Police Department is leading a push to install nearly 200 cameras along interstate highways between Chicago and Mexico to take pictures of license plates and run them through a computer to identify suspected drug traffickers, gun runners and money launderers.
The city is touting the system, at less than $10 million, as a cost-effective way to catch criminals and even find missing children, according to a proposal for federal stimulus funding last year.
Project CrisCros would include 192 stationary cameras covering roughly 1,200 miles of highway across 13 states and connected to 50 mobile license plate recognition systems in vehicles. Pictures of license plates and the rear end of vehicles would be time-stamped with GPS coordinates and fed into a computer that would compare them against local or national "hot lists" of suspect vehicles, with the information shared by participating agencies.
In addition, the data would "be used to analyze trends and develop patterns of travel by vehicles suspected of trafficking contraband" between Chicago and the border of Mexico, according to the proposal.
But the growing use of license plate recognition technology could have a "chilling effect on social and political activities," according to a study last year by the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police. "Specifically, the risk is that individuals will become more cautious in the exercise of their protected rights of expression, protest, association and political participation because they consider themselves under constant surveillance."
They haven't done much to stop crime in the city. What's the solution? Take them nationwide. Won't he be embarrassed when they see his generals taking their M plate cars on vacation?
More wasted taxpayer dollars to his connected friends.
ReplyDeleteHire more Officers and OEMC call takers and dispatchers!