Amherst Police Department scored yet another major grant , $18,945, for a cruiser mounted high-tech gizmo that automatically scans 1,000 license plates per hour flagging unregistered or stolen vehicles, AMBER alert targets in flight or cars registered to drivers with revoked licenses, a common penalty for drunk drivers.
The computerized camera/internet system, known as ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition), combines the power of optical character recognition and face recognition common on digital cameras but geared toward high speed capture and analysis of license plates.
Thus an officer can automatically do real time plate processing, effortlessly, in high-volume with a highly accurate system that never discriminates against race, creed, color, gender or religion.
And unlike the current controversy in South Carolina, where a small town uses radar cameras to issue a plethora of expensive speeding tickets, the results produced by ALPR involve potentially more serious infractions.
APD was only the second police department to receive state accreditation 12 years ago and has been recertified every 3 years since. This achievement weighs in their favor when applying for government grants. Recently they have snagged an Underage Alcohol Grant, You Drink you Drive you Lose Grant, Car seat Grant, a very large Domestic Violence Grant ($175,000 shared with UMass PD), and now this ALPR grant.
Conspiracy theorists may whine about "Big Brother," but it will always be a flesh-and-blood, highly trained officer who interacts with drivers stopped because something was amiss, possibly preventing harm to innocent citizens--as well as the responding officers.
The system will be operational in July.
Long Beach PD demos the system
21 comments:
What about inspection stickers???
Too many cars have stickers from years past (green and orange) or a never resolved "R".
Take notice next time you park in a local lot.
Have police given up on enforcing this issue?
Nice!
I hear they are very close to winning that grant for full-body millimeter-wave scanners at all the entrances to Town Hall, too.
Actually they are hoping someday to score a Federal Cops Hiring Grant so they can recruit a few more officers.
APD gets turned down because they routinely do such a good job , the Feds don’t feel they are as worthy as more urban departments.
APD is also close to scoring a grant to replace standard issue pistols with directed energy weapons (hand-held versions of the "star-wars" systems under development
at Lawrence Livermore Lab when Reagan was president
- my wife knows all about this, but she'd have to "ice" you if she told you ;-)....
Larry, never forget that the town is named after someone on the LOOSING side of a war, and that no matter how many guns the cops have, they won't always win this war. Not when they are on the wrong side of it..
Big Brother is watching. Can the Thought Police be far behind? See y'all in the FEMA camps.
Actually Lord Jeff stayed pretty much out of the Revolution (turning down a field command) as he had made friends with some of the principals during the earlier French and Indian War that he won.
And this article was not about guns (although yes, APD officers are issued guns--but I don't think one has been fired in the line of duty in the past 50 years or so)
I'm not even sure what "war" you are talking about.
it is part of the continual technologic Orwellian desensitization that will result in the sheeple following the masses further down the road to tyranny. I wonder what kind of radiation those things expose to the cops, considering they are inches from their heads?
mr FEMA, don't expect mr Kelley to even understand what the camps are all about. afterall he still believes the towers were brought down with box cutters, and miraculously multiple agencies failed simultaneously to discover the "plot". the popular mechanics story has been debunked, the are traces of thermate, thermite (military grade explosives) throughout manhattan, the buildings fell at freefall speed and steel and concrete were pulverized to a fine dust... this could only be achieved with micro nukes and/or scalar weaponry. building seven in particular exhibited classic controlled demolition earmarks, AND was reported to have fallen live on the BBC 20 minutes before it fell. there were no bodies found at the pentagon or in shanksville. if you still are not aware of the globalists plan for us, you need to get off fluoride, MSG, bpa, and pharmaceudicals which are calcifying your pineal gland and numbing your soul. kill the tv and get online and do the reasearch.... it is all there in the wide open for those who choose to question the fake reality that is fed to you by the controlled mass media. agenda 21 is coming fast under the false guise of environmentalism, and there ain't nothin we can do about it. breathe deep the aluminum and barium of the chemtrails and watch for the rainbow haarp created plasma at the next earthquake near you.
they want you to stay mired in petty local politics so you don't recognize the globalist CIA created al quaeda kabal accelerating every day.
wake up and rise up, the truth will set you free
Bach
What does today's Gazette article say about Lincoln Ave?
Today's Gazette article on Lincoln Ave explains what I told you a month ago: The blockade plan is dead, dead, dead.
New plan, formally unveiled this Tuesday at the Public Works Committee meeting, incorporates two speed tables (commonly known as speed bumps) to slow down traffic.
Since the town is doing many millions in road rehab this spring summer anyway, now is the time to do something like that.
Interestingly Lincoln Avenue was not on the list of streets for major rehab, but the article also points out that the bidding climate is so good that the town may get a few extra roads done for the same amount of money.
And if I had to guess, Lincoln Avenue will now suddenly make the list.
you can't escape the globalists, unless it is off planet...i am working on that one...who is with me? i have my mind-controlled anti-gravity/free-energy vehicle constructed, but i need a co-pilot. don't tell big oil or you might not hear from me again.
bach
I can think of or two Cowardly Anon Nitwits I would love to buy a one way ticket.
send the check to the amherst 250th, they are real good at distributing funds
bach
Yes, they kicked back a fair amount to the town.
i consider myself as anti-big brother as the next (rational) person.
but i don't see this technology as a step in that direction.
i see it as merely doing what the police would do if they had the physical man power to do. these devices are scanning, in public-accessible areas, objects issued and technically owned by the state.
this is nothing more than what officers would do if they were to dedicate all their attention to license plates and had the personnel to do so.
if the machines are used for anything beyond that, in order to track our comings and going, or somehow used to peer into our private lives, i would have a problem with it. this is what those delightful lawyers are for at the aclu.
where do i see a problem is when the inevitably bored cop uses this tool to pick off expired or rejection stickers.
i'm not suggesting this isn't an infraction of the law. what i am saying is that among all the duties of the police this ranks as busy work, revenue collection, and a distraction from more pressing matters. really, is the expired sticker owner public enemy number one?
live in the city for a while and you'll notice cops are busy with "real" problems.
if this tool can catch a drug dealer, child molester, and not distract the cop from serious crime, i support it.
~ecosse
"Conspiracy theorists may whine about "Big Brother," but it will always be a flesh-and-blood, highly trained officer who interacts with drivers stopped because something was amiss, possibly preventing harm to innocent citizens--as well as the responding officers."
Not sure what this means. What harm are they preventing, exactly? Are there lots of undetected "amber alert" vehicles passing through town? What's the benefit to them (or us) in pulling drivers with lapsed registrations over, unless the driver is behaving recklessly anyway, in which case this robocop technique would be completely unnecessary. Seems like a big waste of time, energy and resources to me. Is there cash to the department to be had from identifying drivers or vehicles operating illegally? Is that the attraction? Because it doesn't seem to me that rampant illegal driving is the issue most plaguing our community (except for drivers under the influence, which can't be detected by this new fangled equipment anyway). Don't get it.
Sure, let's just throw all the rules out the window. Let folks drive without registrations, insurance, or inspections.
How about speeding? That okay with you? Radar guns were once "new fangled equipment"...about 50 years ago.
"Radar guns were once "new fangled equipment"...about 50 years ago."
some may recall the early days of the radar gun versus detector. first the fight over the legality of detectors and then that of the battle of technology, and one upmanship.
for every new and improved radar (and later laser) gun, an improved detector, or deterrent, would follow.
anyway, take heart my tin foil hat wearing friends because i can almost guarantee something's around the corner to put the kibosh on this scanner thing. and our civil liberties will likely prevent the police from stopping its use just as with radar detectors 30 years ago.
but as i said before, i hope this new toy doesn't distract our public servents from focusing on serious issues. police departments in genderal have always had a soft spot for easy pickings revenue collection.
~ecosse
"but as i said before, i hope this new toy doesn't distract our public servents from focusing on serious issues. police departments in genderal have always had a soft spot for easy pickings revenue collection."
Exactly! Larry thinks I was saying lets throw the rules out the window. Not true. I'm only questioning the lengths we should go to enforce them. We have limited resources (including person hours). Sifting out these kind of administrative rule breakers within our midst (with expensive equipment rather than real, in the moment law enforcement), is not how I'd like to see them directed. Someone had to spend the time to pursue the grant, in the first place, right? And someone will be out there pointing it at people when they could be doing something else, right? So what's in it for the townspeople, exactly? Increased revenue? An increased sense of ease that all those "naughty" people who didn't follow the letter of the law are off the streets? Easy pickings are not necessarily the most fruitful. That's all I'm saying.
No, actually nobody will be out there "pointing it at people when they could be doing something else."
It is mounted to a cruiser and works automatically, so the officer can concentrate on other things.
In order for the tinfoil hat to work, the mouth and fingers must be secured with duct tape.
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