License plate readers violate our privacy and civil rights.
In Florida, not only vehicles owned or driven by a person required to register as a sex offender are on the registry, but so too are the vehicles of anybody living with them or visiting their homes for 5 or more days. That means your spouse, your driver-age children, even your roommate will have their cars registered and identified as being associated with a sex offender.
That’s a scary premise when they get pulled over for speeding or some other traffic violation. We’ve received dozens of complaints from family or roommates of registrants who were harassed because of this. But it’s an even scarier premise to have your vehicle flagged when you are doing nothing!
The city of Davenport, Iowa just approved a contract that will give their law enforcement officers license plate scanners – high-speed cameras mounted on police cars that capture thousands of license plates per minute, convert each license plate number into machine-readable text and check them against databases. According to this article, one of the express purposes of the readers is to “monitor that registered sex offenders are not violating restrictions that dictate areas where they cannot be”.
If your spouse is a teacher or your children drive themselves to high-school, they can be quickly flagged and it’s not arrest that we’re concerned about, but the humiliation and embarrassment that comes from being called out in front of co-workers and classmates.
License plate readers might be a bad idea, but being forced to register family members or roommates cars is a horrible and unfair.
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I was a resident of Pinellas County and because my aunt/uncle/cousins lived next door I was charged with failure to register and failure to register THEIR vehicles. I fought this for over a year and finally settled with a $1,100 fine and “Obstruction of Justice (Misdemeanor) “Not a sexual offense.” The house I lived in was divided by an over pass – they lived in one house I lived in the other. I had my own electricity, water, door lock with it’s own key. Yet, the sheriff said because it was the same address I had to register them – even after 2 SPOT officers told me it wasn’t necessary. After the court-case the interviewer SPOT sheriff changed my address to my temporary address and basically kicked me out of Florida – so just beware – If the police/Sheriffs want you in jail – they will charge you with anything and all those judges are biased against anyone on the registry – oh! by the way; my bail was for $60,000 – what some crap.
Greg
Back in the 1980s, I worked in law enforcement. One of the numerous reasons I left was, some of the things you mentioned. There are some great men and woman in law enforcement, however there are also many corrupt officers. Many became cops because they were bullied as a kid and wanted power and some just wanted to have authority over others.
I saw many times an officer pull weed out of their pocket and plant it in someone’s car.
Why the Hell would you ruin someone’s life just so you can boost your drug busts? Since being a small boy I wanted to be a cop. After all of the things I witnessed in person, my dreams were crushed. The job went from one of respect to one of legalized Mafiosos. I finally could take it no long and resigned.
The whole thing is totally wrong. Your drivers license and plates have absolutely nothing to do with being accused of a sex crime. It’s just another way of GPS tracking. Unless you have been convicted of something that has been proven in court to deserve tracking they should have no reason or right to require that information. If you’re not breaking driving laws or your doing something that requires identification at the time, it’s nobody’s business.
Speaking of privacy “rights”, I hope you all can see this;
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGiBonCHMgM/?igshid=1jlpkg1doc6ru
Now people can get a taste of what type of dictatorship goes on for those on the registry. This information about the CA governor dictating how people can spend the holidays should be used in comparison to the requirements of being on the registry. This is a FREE country. Not a dictatorship. When your sentence (probation/parole) is fully completed, off the registry for good. Period.
Conservatives don’t like being told how they can live, eh? Alright then. So let’s throw it right back at them and remind them that they’re supposedly so “Christian” and therefore they need to practice FORGIVENESS.
I do not understand the posts about being detained in a state park while an officer calls FDLE to find out what to do. If there’s no state law against being present in state parks, then what is the problem?
Confused
If you are talking about my posts, they happened in city owned parks. I have never been questioned in a state park.
The city cops, especially smaller cities where the cops are bored and just go looking for trouble is where I have been stopped and detained at least 15 times over past 20 years.
Every time they told me they ran my tags and then looked up my photo then went looking for me in the park. One time I saw their cruiser parked behind me and saw them walking around looking for me and I got in my vehicle and drove away lol
I fall under the old rules from when the registry first came out so law enforcement ( including the Florida Dept of Law enforcement ) has a hard time keeping up with the ever changing statues, laws, rules, ordinances and other no-no nay nay made up as they go along legislations.
While they detain me each time for 30 minutes to an hour, robberies and break ins and car jackings are taking place somewhere they could be patrolling and doing real police work. Guess I am the easy target. End up wasting my time and theirs. I am blessed that so far the FDLE didn’t tell them to go ahead and arrest me and let me and my lawyer figure it out.