So says Harvey E. Eisenberg, a Maryland Assistant U.S. Attorney, in this moment from Frontline’s new monthly magazine series. Watch:
The segment, titled Are We Safer, is reported by the WaPo’s Dana Priest:
Priest examines Maryland… Here, Gov. Martin O’Malley tells FRONTLINE how the
Department of Homeland Security backed his state’s efforts to track down terrorists, funding the creation of a “fusion center” to bring together data from new high-tech devices like license plate readers and CCTV cameras on street corners, and to combine it with the databases of local police and the federal government that are filled with tips and reports of “suspicious activity.”
Department of Homeland Security backed his state’s efforts to track down terrorists, funding the creation of a “License plate readers have been around for a long while. Here Deputy Ken demonstrates the license plate reader system used in central Florida in 2006:
We have two forward-facing cameras, a side-facing camera and a rear-facing camera. Each of those cameras can capture and check one plate every second. That’s going to give you about 3,600 plates per hour per camera, if you were actually to come across that much traffic.
All across the country police are touting their shiny new license plate reader systems. Smith & Wesson, the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States, bought into the license plate reader business in 2009.
Do license plate readers make you feel safer?