How is a plate reader going to stop people from driving drunk? And since when did we drop all constitutional discussion due to the actions of drunks behind the wheel? No, no thanks. Ive heard that "Govt. is mother, Govt. is father" argument before and they can stick it in their willies.
Ive had to unpeel enough of these people from their car wrecks, collect their body parts, shovel their brains up, and theres nothing a Mad Mom can tell me. The tools are there for the Govt. to crawl up our arse as far as they want and if "I" distrust it all then you had better too.
If I distrust it then so should you!
Dont be suckers. This plate reading scam is there just to produce revenue anyway.And at the end of the plate read lies the Golden goose of municipality revenue collection. The vehicle tow/impound. That, and its another juicy contract to dish out to Political contributors.
Questions? See below.
Rich, don't be confused with active organizations like MADD targeting just drunk drivers. They do so much more. Driver Education is part of their mission statement as well. Not to mention the insurance companies, (who by the way, would profit more from this vehicle registration reader than anyone else). That is where the revenue will come into play. Unregistered motor vehicles (stats in Massachusetts say about 1 in 20 are illegally on the roadway). Who gets that money? Well, you have the court fees and penalties which are usually split between the state and town. Then the insurance companies get a new customer. The vehicle owner still has to get the car out of the impound yard. Oh and then you have the tow company who makes out too.
And thats the best thing about it all for the Politicians.
Nobody is going to hate them for the things. They will hate the cops.
Nobody will blame themselves for their lack of civil involvement. For casting the votes for these characters in the first place, "that is if they voted at all". They wont look in a mirror and see a lifetime of personal involvement in the system being limited to whining and sniveling on Internet forums.
Its all much simpler just to hate the poor guy in uniform. Who has no choice but to tag people when the stupid thing goes off. That is if he wants to stay employed and keep his family off of the dogfood line.
This is not my idea of "America" or of being an "American". Govt. has no business knowing our business and I dont trust them with it.
The general public already hates cops. But the officer always has the discretion to act upon a "hit" from a system. I've seen this discretion in person.
When it comes to implementing a system like this, it'll come down to the politicians. I guessing this scanning system is expensive and with most states looking at a 10% to 20% cut in spending, local aid in police, fire, highway, and schools will be cut first. Usually the top three take the hit.
I don't have a problem with cameras at intersections. It's another "tool" that can be used. Let me give an example. In Massachusetts, the RMV implemented a new crash report (accident form) about 9 years ago. In one particular intersection in the town where I live, it was notoriously know for some serious accidents. There were fatal. The RMV was able to look at the crash reports and determine what time the crashes took place, the weather, and how many vehicles were involved. I would say within two years of the study being done on that one intersection (RMV said they were doing the study), there were better traffic lights installed, the roadway was graded different, and more street lights were installed. There are no cameras there. But, since the modifications, there has been a reduced rate of crashes and to my knowledge, no fatals.
So the question still stands, are the changes good? Looking back at that crash report 9 years ago, I would have said "No." It was a waste of paper and it took too damn long to fill out. But looking at the results now, I was wrong. Those crash reports have saved lives and improved the roadways all of our loved ones travel.
Rich, nobody can predict the future on how this scanning system will work or how well it'll be received. For that matter, any new technology that comes out.
