License plate readers: A useful tool for police comes with privacy concerns

Washington Post

An armed robber burst into a Northeast Washington market, scuffled with the cashier, and then shot him and the clerk’s father, who also owned the store. The killer sped off in a silver Pontiac, but a witness was able to write down the license plate number.

Police figured out the name of the suspect very quickly. But locating and arresting him took a little-known investigative tool: a vast system that tracks the comings and goings of anyone driving around the District.

Scores of cameras across the city capture 1,800 images a minute and download the information into a rapidly expanding archive that can pinpoint people’s movements all over town.

Police entered the suspect’s license plate number into that database and learned that the Pontiac was on a street in Southeast. Police soon arrested Christian Taylor, who had been staying at a friend’s home, and charged him with two counts of first-degree murder. His trial is set for January.

More than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time, helping police pinpoint stolen cars and fleeing killers. But the program quietly has expanded beyond what anyone had imagined even a few years ago.

With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.

Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the District, which has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well, and local agencies plan to add many more in coming months, creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District.

“It never stops,” said Capt. Kevin Reardon, who runs Arlington County’s plate reader program. “It just gobbles up tag information. One of the big questions is, what do we do with the information?”...[Full Article]

Congress Given Special Treatment and Avoid TSA Pat-Downs

Why Congress Isn't So Concerned With TSA Nude Scans & Gropes: They Get To Skip Them

TechDirt.com

from the so-that's-how-it-works... dept

Earlier this week, in holding a hearing with the head of the TSA, our congressional representatives didn't seem too concerned about the public complaints about TSA security procedures: the naked scans and the gropings. Want to know why? Perhaps it's because, on the rare occasions that they fly commercial, they get to skip security. The NY Times notes that Speaker of the House John Boehner (who does regularly fly commercial) got to walk right by security and go directly to the gate. In defending this, Michael Steel, head of the Republican party pointed out that this is true of all Congressional leaders -- which doesn't make it any better.

Incoming Speaker Boehner avoids airport pat-down

WashingtonPost.com

WASHINGTON -- No airport pat-down for the incoming House speaker.

On Friday, the GOP's John Boehner was guided past the metal detectors and hand inspections given to other passengers on his flight home to Ohio.

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said his boss followed procedures set by Capitol Police and the Transportation Security Administration. Steel said the same rules apply to other congressional leaders.

Furor over airline passenger checks has grown with more airports installing full-body digital scanners and TSA adding a more intrusive pat-down for those opting out of the scans.

Boehner, R-Ohio, has pledged to fly commercial airlines back to his home district.

You want to touch me where ?

IndyStar.com

Indignant at the stepped-up airport security, from full-body scans to searches of private areas?

Maybe it would make you feel better to know that most members of Congress have to endure them, too.

While newly elected House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, caused some raised eyebrows Friday when he was allowed to bypass the security line at Reagan National Airport in Washington, members of Indiana's congressional delegation say they stand in line like everyone else.

"I always do," said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. "Every time, including body scans, pat-downs -- whatever they've got going on."

"As a matter of fact," he joked, "as far as I can tell, members of Congress are in a suspect class. And I think the public would probably agree we may be an additional security risk."

If there's some special way to avoid the security, he said, "they've been hiding it from me for 12 years."

For Boehner, the ticket around the full-body scanner and the pat-down was having a security detail with him. Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said his boss followed procedures set by Capitol Police and the Transportation Security Administration. Steel said the same rules apply to other congressional leaders.

According to the TSA, a government official traveling with an approved federal law enforcement security detail isn't required to undergo security screening.

Without that security detail, though, members of Congress are supposed to be treated like everyone else.

Mark Helmke, a spokesman for Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Lugar has to take off his shoes, belt, tie clip and other metal objects just like other travelers.

With Indianapolis International Airport among the first to use the new body scanners, "he has become very familiar with them," Helmke said.

Spokesmen for U.S. Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Andre Carson, D-Ind., said the congressmen endure the same security as the rest of the flying public. Josh Gillespie, Burton's spokesman, said the same is true of other officials. Recently, Gillespie said, he saw new U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett at the airport, going through the same security procedures he was.

PAST ARTICLE: Washington Post / December 20, 2009

Copenhagen Climate Deal Shows New World Order May Be Led By U.S., China

COPENHAGEN -- If the talks that resulted in an imperfect deal to combat global warming provided anything, it was a glimpse into a new world order in which international diplomacy will increasingly be shaped by the United States and emerging powers, most notably China...