From a policeman’s point of view, why not? It’s a numbers game and if he scans enough plates he might get lucky. If I was an ambitious policeman, not on call, and I had the equipment I’d do that shit all day long.
Wait, so I can’t read an email at a red light, but these jacklegs can do full on computing and printing while driving?
I know, it’s awful.
Did you know that they also sometimes get to drive over the speed limit and run red lights in the course of their duties, and they don’t even get a ticket!
It’s just not fair, i tell ya.
Often the non-driving officer will type. Plus most ANPRs are automatic and scan any plate that passes in front of it.
The printing is done while stopped I’d imagine.
Actually I won’t speak for all States, but at least a few that I’m familiar with in car computers are configured in a way that isn’t totally dissimilar from DVD players and such that some cars have in the front seat–they can’t be used while the car is in motion.
I have a friend who is in sales for a Fortune 500 technology company, he mentioned to me that they had an in-car computing product marketed towards LE and that in many States it had to be specifically configured so officers couldn’t type or use it while the vehicle was in motion.
What non-driving officer. With public dollars being low, it’s rare to see more than one officer per car in my area.
I don’t know that these systems actually have an effect on profiling. It’s still within the discretion of the officer if he “can” safely pursue and pull over the driver with the expired insurance or out of date tags that are caught by his computer system. The rate of who gets pulled over and who gets arrested is so vastly out of whack, what would possibly happen if anyone could show some random officer just happened to enforce automatic “pings” more stringently against brown folk (or pretty women or young guys in Boystown or whomever).
I don’t mind job related things done by cops as they drive, but I’m getting really damned sick and tired of seeing cops on handheld personal cell phones while they’re driving. Even though it’s not illegal in our state (yet) it sets a horrible example, and diverts their attention. If it’s dangerous for the average driver, it’s dangerous for them too. Besides, they’re meant to be working when they’re behind that wheel, they need to get off the phone with their wives or their kids’ school or whoever and do their damn jobs.
On that note (leaving out my feelings on it one way or the other) my city passed an ordinance stating that an officer isn’t allowed to return to the station during his shift to use the bathroom, he has to find a place (store/restaurant/bar usually) in his jurisdiction. The idea being that it keeps him A)more visible B)on better terms with shop keepers and employees since he’ll usually stop to chit chat with them when he does this and C)on the road instead of at the station. Of course, IME, having between three and four cops living on my block, most of them appear to just stop home. But as much as I’d rather they stopped at the local stores and restaurants, I suppose that’s better then them going back the the police station a few times a day.
Sad to say, a lot of cops do subscribe to the theory that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Seems an enforcer of the law would enforce the greatest law there is, the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights.
“The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted to a crime.” Miller v. Ohio (1967) While it specifically dealt with a defendant being charged with Obstruction for refusing to grant permission to search a vehicle, it also means that the mere exercise of the 4th Amendment does not constitute “reasonable suspicion” for initiating an unwarranted search.
Personally, I have nothing to hide when I take a dump, but a cop would arrest me specifically for NOT hiding my actions.
From the UK
All very well scanning the numbers
- a bright individual will have cloned someone else’s number
- others will simply be off the radar, in other words they give a fake address and not be seen again
Which makes this automatic Number -> Insurance stuff just another way of persecuting the basically law abiding, but slightly disorganized.
How can you tell if a cellphone is a personal one, as opposed to a police issued one, by looking at it? Often police will use cellphones to pass information between themselves, dispatch, and supervisors, that they don’t want broadcast over the normal police channels.
It also picks up stolen cars and expired licences / tax / MOT etc.
Obviously cloned plates will beat it but plenty of people are not that committed - mostly they just can’t be arsed to pay.
I have no idea if that is true, but I do suspect that being the opposite, an old, ugly white-guy is often a free pass. I haven’t been pulled over in 25 years, regardless of the stupid stunts I pull. (knocking on wood)
I don’t think an automatic scanner would catch it, but I’m pretty sure that the make, model, and color of your car are in there with you plate numbers. Unless I’m really lucky the odds are a cop would notice that my plates that are registered to a green minivan don’t look right on my friend’s silver Audi TT.
The variant on the urban legend (and not too implausible) is the students who take a photo of the teacher’s license, print it out life-size, and then stick it on their car and run a few red-light cameras.
The downside of not chalking is that the license plate reader cannot know if you move your car. We have an area near where I work with a 2-hour limit. Typically they pass by in the morning and afternoon, 2 passes, to catch all-day parkers. If your tires are chalked, they can tell if you moved. If the GPS is actually accurate, then can tell if you moved a decent amount, but can’t tell if you left and came back.
The downside of “I have nothing to hide” attitude is simple - the next step is of course automated license plate collectors along all major roads. When the police search a database of cars near the scene of the crime, they will be harassing you to allow them to take fiber samples from your car, DNA samples from your person, and search your house because you were near the scene of a particularly horrific crime during a 2 hour window. And of course, if you don’t let them, then that’s suspicious beacause a good citizen has nothing to hide… 
I suspect the problem is not Driving While Hot, but the offenses of Driving While Young-Male in a college town, and Driving While Black in the rest of the land of the free.
For sure! My wife is 17 years younger than me (and pretty; don’t know how I managed to swing that one). But for years, she wouldn’t catch a ticket for running over a nun. Me, I couldn’t avoid a ticket just for breathing heavy.
Now that she’s getting older, it’s been a shock to her that she gets tickets. Me, I seem to get off scot-free even when I openly admit I screwed up and have no excuse.
I heard a somewhat similar story about a guy driving past an automated monitoring station when the camera flashed his picture. He was certain he was driving within the speed limit, so he drove back around to check it out, making absolutely sure he was under the limit. The camera flashed him again. Convinced he was dealing with a defective monitoring unit, he made yet another pass, this time going ridiculously slow, all to provide evidence in court of his innocence. Sure enough, the camera flashed his picture. Twice more, just for fun, he passed by the camera in slow speed, laughing openly at the camera and even flipping the finger as he passed it.
Sure enough, the following week he received five tickets in the mail… for Failure to Use a Seatbelt.
(Yes, it’s very likely to be one of those apocryphal stories. How does an automated system determine whether you’re using a seatbelt?)
This actually happened to an Australian that I know!!
Because our local police issue phone is a flip-style deal that’s silver, and the last three officers I’ve seen on handheld phones were using smartphones. Also, you can tell the difference in demeanor between a person on a business related call and a protracted personal call.
***I *** think it’s hilarious too! I never would have thought of that, and if I did, I would never have thought it was actually possible. Brilliant.
God save us from cops without a sense of humor!