High-tech camera, spotting unpaid registration fees and property taxes

[underpants]

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-09-10-0139.html

In Chesterfield County, high-tech inspectors have a fast method for spotting people who haven't paid their vehicle-registration fees and personal property taxes.

Cruising for tax evaders, Rich Billingsley drove slowly down a row of vehicles parked outside one of Chesterfield County's courts buildings last week.
The car's owner had failed to pay his vehicle-registration fee, and likely his personal property tax as well.

"We try to go where the cars are," Billingsley said. "We look at places where there is a high volume of traffic -- apartment complexes, shopping centers and high traffic areas on the roads."

According to the manufacturer, the system can capture 1,500 license plate numbers and images per minute and read plates from all 50 states and Canada and Mexico. Who's using the technology?

Chesterfield is the only locality in central Virginia and one of just a few statewide to use the system for tax collection. Richmond, through a private vendor, uses similar technology to identify motorists with multiple unpaid parking tickets.

How does it work?

The cameras, no bigger than an oversize soft-drink can, are mounted on top of a car or its trunk and are linked to a processing unit and a laptop computer operated by one of Billingsley's inspectors.

As the inspectors drive by a line of cars, the cameras snap photos of every vehicle within range. Those images appear instantly on the laptop, which contains a database of offenders updated daily. The computer activates an audible and visual alarm within milliseconds of identifying a violator.

"There is a privacy issue, but probably not a legal one," noted Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. "People do have a negative response to the increased ability of the government to essentially spy on us, but there are almost no laws to prevent the police from doing this."

[L. Coyote]

1. Let's see, How easy would it be to program to read Obama bumper stickers

and fire all those people?

Nothing wrong with good technology, if you can trust the "good guys" are not political crooks!