October 16

Searching for stolen cars and parking scofflaws

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5  comments

Seattle Police are aggressively searching for stolen cars and parking scofflaws, sending a dozen vehicles equipped with license-plate scanners down most city roads.

During four months this summer more than 1.6 million scans were made of upwards of 600,000 vehicles, according to a story today by our news partner The Seattle Times.

The most emphasis has been on heavily traveled areas, such as Capitol Hill, downtown, Queen Anne and Ballard, the story states. But the scanners visited three out of every four city streets.

To view the Times’ interactive map, click here.

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Sara W

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  1. Well said Brad!!

    Government storing such data might not be a negative now, but could be down the road. My buddy has a PHD in sociology. Some of his PHD peers went to work at the census in DC. They pay these people well over 100K to perform statistical analysis against census data. Most of the work they do is to support a favorable stance or negative stance towards some politicians pet project or bill. They basically twist and manipulate the data anyway they can to get the outcome the politician wants. It’s pretty scary. Yes, typically number don’t lie, but when the model for crunching the numbers is biased, the outcome is not necessarily neutral facts. My buddy turned down a job at the census bureau after seeing this crap and went to work at an Ivy league college instead.

    Point being, just because the data is being presented and/or used for a good thing now, doesn’t mean it can be used for something you don’t agree with down the road like Brad says above. I think the route of numbers paying attention and reporting vehicles is better. The police can run the individual vehicles. If they are stolen they should be flagged, if not, no big deal.

  2. The issue I have with people saying “if you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about” is this: Who defines what is “wrong”? What happens when somebody in the government decides that going to a mosque is “wrong” and starts monitoring cars parked by the mosque. What happens when somebody decides that labor union organization activity is “wrong”, and starts monitoring cars coming in and our of a parking lot near a union hall. That argument only works when we have a clear and unified position on what is “right” and what is “wrong”.

    I’m fine with the SPD scanning license plates to look for stolen vehicles. What I’m not fine with is the SPD storing that auto/location information for months or years, and then data-mining it much later for a completely different purpose. That is “Big Brother” behavior, in my view.

  3. Absolutely, 100% on-board with this technology. I know if MY car were stolen, I sure as hell would want SPD using whatever tools they have available to find it. And I’ll bet you would, too! If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about. And, if you are doing something wrong, then I hope to hell SPD catches up with you and gets you out of my neighborhood!

  4. Yet there’s been a car with 2 flat tires parked on my block for AT LEAST a month and a half, great job SPD!

    And let me guess, “We only keep the scan data we collect for 90 days, we promise.”

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