Moderator note as to why this thread hasn’t been moved to the piston:
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This is News to me but can anhone confirm this is really happening.
Garda and Plain clothes vehicles cars are now equipped with technology that passively scans Reg Plates as they are driven about, alerting the driver if a Reg Plate has any flags/alerts if for example its not taxed. Garda will not always act on the alerts and drive on by but over time you may be driving around and a profile of use is being built up of your movements which can be used to incriminate you.
I know someone who was caught out in such a scenario very recently.
Combine this with he fraudulent eToll systems and you now have the beginnings of mass electronic surveillance system which takes things to a whole new level.
I for one was completely unaware of this if it is true.
I have noticed poles holding a number of cameras over the road to the west out near the Spawell and on the N7 while it is three lanes. I presume these are to log reg nos.
Many supermarkets car parks log your reg and your picture.
Traffic control cameras all over dublin log your reg.
Mobile phone operators log all your calls and texts as they are obliged to by law.
More importantly, they log your mobile phone’s whereabouts at regular intervals (as required by law).
You can be wiretapped by the Gardai and they only have to seek a warrant from a Ditrict Court Judge after they hear something they want to use. That means they can wiretap anyone in the meantime.
The Irish State has more sophisticated surveillance techniques than the USSR and is deploying them against its citizens. It is hard to tell whether they have a goal or are just setting up the infrastructure for those who might have a goal or so they can impress their international colleagues. (Perhaps we have lost our security independence much as we have lost our economic independence.)
If this were all true (and as effective as you claim) why do they need this damn new “gangland” bill? Other than the obvious… Or is it merely they want an effective patriot act of their own?
From a technical point of view, everything you mentioned is possible. They can automatically or manually scan your car whether in fixed locations or mobile. The technology exists to use the data to determine your movements over time and know where you have been. Combined with your credit card transactions, shop loyalty card history, your revenue employment history and to a lesser extent, your ATM records, it’s possilble to gather the information together and profile you and extrapolate what you’ve been doing.
From a “what’s allowed” point of view. They can probably only check your reg plate to see if it has any priors. After that, probably no information or action is taken. Sounds like it’s an admin overhead reduction. Instead of having to call in the reg over the radio system and take up an operators time, they probably just interact with an in-car computer to get the information.
edit: of course, I’m only guessing, do update if you find out they can do more
Get the tin foil hats out.
If you carry a mobile phone your movements are already traced
If you use the internet, credit card, laser card then there is enough information out there about you to build up a detailed profile
more likely to be used to try and sell you stuff than anything more sinister
They have this in the US I hear, handy for finding stolen cars etc. The US gets a daily download of all blacklisted number plates and beeps when it sees one that is on the list. The cops can then call it in to see what they should do about it.
It’s nothing sinister, just a speed camera in an unmarked car!
True, they can take photos which record the car model and number plate and use this to check up on them if they like, but they’ve been able to do something similar with a biro, a piece of paper and their radio for years.
It’s mainly used for catching people speeding though - I spotted one around Dame Street a few months back driving in front of me and asked a Guard I know about it.
Nope it’s not a speed camera, it’s a camera which is hooked up to number plate recognition software which then looks up a database to check for alerts associated with that number, all in real time. Could be used for all sorts of reasons especially combined with data logging gps tracking of the garda car it’s mounted in etc.
The gangland bill is required to garner political support for Dermot “I want to be Taoiseach for the sake of it” Ahern. It is also required to distract us from the fact that the Minister for Justice has no clue about how to improve detection rates. As Pat Rabbitte said, laws to avoid jury tampering aren’t going to help the gardai investigate the case and bring them to Court in the first place.
I’m not denying it’s not capable of that, but from what i’ve been told from a guard based in Dublin who is familiar with it, is that they mainly use it for catching people speeding.
Ireland and the UK are the test states for the NWO police state. There are no two populaces in the world that are more surveilled. I think they have more speed cameras per capita but we probably have the edge in data retention and lack of transparency.
