A while back,after passing through a local speed trap.. I had
a local cop pull me over. I knew I hadn't been speeding and
I had my seat belt on.. So I had no idea what he wanted ?

He walked up to my door and asked for me by name..
Which surprised me a little. I said yeah, that's me.
Then he told me I was driving with an expired Drivers License.

I told him that was ridiculous.. Then remembered my birthday had
been the month before and sure enough license expired on my birthday.
Massachusetts doesn't send renewal forms in the mail anymore..

I asked him how he knew my license was expired and he told me his cruiser
has automatic license plate reader computers on board and
flagged my truck as I drove by.
The system runs in the background and while he is playing with the radar,
the car runs every plate that passes by in both directions and alerts him to
anything interesting it finds in real time.

He was nice enough.. and I was lucky my wife was with me and her license was OK.
He made her get in the drivers seat after checking her license
and the registration and let me go home.
He said that if I had been alone he would have had to tow the
truck and leave me standing on the side of the road.

That's technology for you

link to info..

https://www.privacysos.org/technologies_of_control/ALPR

That is Big Brother watching and reaching into your wallet. A tow, at least here in the SF Bay Area is typically $400+- and $100 to get a release from the PD authorizing the tow to get your car out of car jail. So, $500 going right into the greedy hands of the tow company (legalized theft if you have ever had to deal with these crooks) and the city/county. If you want to get rich, don't go to school and earn an education, just open a towing/storage yard.

I believe these have been in use for a while now
I've heard that they are scanning for repeat dui offenders, and pulling over cars that have been involved in a past DUI and then giving un official sobriety checks on the driver to see if there is probable cause for an actual road side

I once had my car stolen they found it at ~10PM, and had it taken to an impound yard.

I showed up to get it the very next morning (car was in yard for ~8 hours).

When I went to pay, the guy charged me for 48 hours of storage.
I said WHAT?!?! It hasnt been here for even 8 hours!

He said "Came in yesterday, youre picking it up today. That's TWO Days. 48 hours"
I blew up and started arguing with the guy, but he was completely unfazed - I could tell he had plenty of experience with this, so I shut up and paid!

Goddamn higway robbery! but I wasnt going to argue on the spot with a bunch of burly wrecking yard types all standing around me.

Truly frightening scenario. Another step towards loss of our privacy, etc.

Not sure if the enforcement arm of the government could handle the same thing in California logistically. Half the drivers in SoCal don't have insurance, quite a few have no driver's licenses, a portion are drunk driving at any given time. They'd have to hire a million new police officers and dedicate them to just stopping and collecting their money.

They do send out renewal notices here and it took me two hours of waiting to renew mine at the local DMV. They say to make appointments but the first available one was three months past my birthday expiration date. Typical.

These systems probably have been around for a while.
The new generation of Police Cruisers have them as an
option package.
They run in the background with no input from the cop
in the car.
They can run thousands of plates in 1 shift.

Can't imagine how many times I would have gotten busted
by this when I was a kid.. The stuff we did..

I can see them broadening the search criteria to expired
Inspection Stickers, and many other things..

Interesting use of technology.

Seriously, when he walked up and called me by name,
I knew I was in trouble.
At least he let me go without a ticket..

Been using them here in the sticks of Southern Maryland for several years. Though I'm not sure about our system, but at least some store all the hits for years in a database which includes location, date, time, etc.

Also be advised marketing companies are using them with the cameras hidden on their vehicles. Scary world we live in now when it comes to invasion of privacy.

We have no longer have an expectation of privacy when in public.
Now you cant even trust that law enforcement isnt listening to our cellphone calls.
Look up "Stingray" if you are curious.

I had a friend working on very advanced facial recognition systems that were installed in airports and bus stations IN THE 90S!
Just imagine what they have now.

I was even wondering the other day about when we "sign" our signatures on the card scanners at the store.
Since the NSA can monitor all electronic traffic, does that mean that they have handwriting samples from all of us too?

The latest news explains that chances are that every single one of us has a virus/trojan on our computers that can monitor our computer, and CANNOT be removed with virus protection software.
Even a complete 100% wipe of the harddrives will not remove it.
Anyone care to guess how the NSA managed that one?

We cause the problem ourselves. Terrorists check in on an airline and kill everyone so we want surveillance in place to prevent anything like that from happening again. And we're on. Edward Snowden leaks that the feds are conducting that surveillance and we get all hissy about our "loss of privacy". And we're off. But then a bomber kills and maims a lot of people in Boston and we all want to know why our government isn't tracking those potential terrorists to prevent that from happening again. And we're on again. Then a cop with a licence plate scanner.... and so on and so on. What do you do? The horns of a dilemma.

For good order's sake I usually sign my credit card authorizations as "Popeye". Sometimes as "Superman" when I'm feeling it, other times as "Robert Redford" when I think that cutie behind me in line might see, other times with a squiggle and an oval that looks like a sperm. No one seems all that interested. Anyone who's surveilling me is an idiot and deserves what they get.

True dat. I've signed those with three X's and a squinty drunk face (kinda like the one gettin' the chair here) and it goes unnoticed.

We can't have it all.

Something important to touch upon; we loved the Hell out of that technology when the Boston bombers were identified within hours. Carry on.

Actually, all the black boxes in modern cars concern me more as they seem to be tracking and recording events. I can't imagine that this will give manufacturers more and more reasons to deny warrantee coverage and attorneys ammunition in court cases.

I think I like the simpler times!

And those black boxes should concern you. Police and prosecutors have been obtaining this information for several years now whenever an incident involves a motor vehicle with that technology.

Almost raises a 5th Amendment issue in that your car in effect is testifying against you .

And yet Washington actively speaks out about other countries infringing on civil rights with widespread surveillance.

As for black boxes on cars, I foresee my future cars will be rebuilds of older cars - besides, I like to drive rather than the car do it for me...

I'm surprised no one from Washington state as commented. I know they have been using plate scanners for several years. I talked with an officer in Wenatchee that said he could scan plates in both directions traveling 70 mph at some ridiculous rate of 700+ a sec. Don't know if that is quite true but we had this conversation while he was at walmart. Driving thru the lot
Scanning plates and waiting for people to come out to their cars.

I wasn't aware of that. Last time in for a license I was asked to remove my glasses, which I wear all of the time, for the picture. Facial recognition software. We're all in some data base these days. Love it, live with it, or move to Haiti.

How would these systems work if you had a hitch-attached bike rack per say that covers part of the plate? or those trunk warp around ones

This is a shining example of way, way out of control. What if you were out of town on business, you're wife got a flat on her car & had to drive your car? Would the cop have pulled her over because the machine told him to? Madness. Your wife, driving your car, buckled in & not speeding... yet she gets pulled over because your license is expired- what a crock of .

So I run with a 45 year old oval German tourist plate in the front, and a CA plate in the rear. The scanner would not make sense of my front plate, but of course would have me ID'ed with my rear plate.

Anybody else have a similar situation (or no front plate) and get talked to by police? I have my front plate loose in the cabin and throw it on the front dashboard whenever police are around.

Anything to obfuscate!

I wonder if a cop would ticket you with a clean car, but very dirty license plate?

Maryland has had numerous bills in front of the State House over the years to do away with front license plates - between the police and plate recognition at toll booths (though they scan front and rear), the bills keep losing...

There have also been proposals on Capital Hill to mandate GPS trackers in new cars that would store data for X number of days. So far none of these have passed, but it's only a matter of time.