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Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by ericcumbee on Saturday June 29, 2013 @10:20AM (#5962450)
My small home town in Georgia has one of those. I really like the fact that they are doing a lot to take drivers that have no insurance, no licence, or registration off the road. Those people are why we pay so much for car insurance. From what I heard the local PD took out a combo 30k loan/grant to buy a set of those. They wrote enough tickets in the first week to cover it.

On the other the idea that they are logging every time, and place they see your vehicle is very disconcerting to me.

Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by sokoloff on Saturday June 29, 2013 @11:16AM (#5962615)
Insurance and registration are tied to the vehicle.

License is tied to the person, and I'd hope that solely recognizing the plate of a car owned by someone with a suspended, revoked or never-existing license doesn't represent probable cause to stop the car and check out the driver. I suspect some PDs probably claim it is.

Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by ericcumbee on Saturday June 29, 2013 @01:11PM (#5963030)
Yeah I mis-spoke. it Queries by Licence Plate, I know they said it checks insurance, registration, and if the car is registered to a person that is wanted or has warrants out against them it will flag that vehicle.
Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by dylangs1030 on Saturday June 29, 2013 @01:13PM (#5963040)
I disagree. I think that is probable cause.

I don't think there should be a penalty for it, but it's definitely worth checking out.

For example, if there's a man with a suspended license and no wife or kids, it would be suspicious for his car to just be on the road.

Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by ensignavenger on Saturday June 29, 2013 @03:52PM (#5963568)
If you own a car, and your license is suspended- what are the chances you are going to either a) loan your car to a friend or family member; b) ask a friend or family member to drive you somewhere (possibly in your own car) to get groceries/run other errands? I think the odds are pretty good.
Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by CamperBob2 on Saturday June 29, 2013 @05:27PM (#5963753)
Easy enough to clear that up when the car is pulled over.

I agree, it's fair game for probable cause. Otherwise, they couldn't pull over a car driven by bank robbers or kidnappers on the basis of its license number.

Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by kaoD on Saturday June 29, 2013 @12:52PM (#5962959)
> Those people are why we pay so much for car insurance.

I don't get it. Why?

Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by ericcumbee on Saturday June 29, 2013 @01:08PM (#5963023)
Uninsured motorist protection. i.e. you get hit by a driver with out insurance.
Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by benmanns on Saturday June 29, 2013 @02:53PM (#5963396)
I don't see how this could be. Uninsured motorist protection for my wife is $22/6 months and $19/6 months for me (older car). Compare that to $130 and $120 for liability. It would seem that I am much more likely to run into someone than it is for someone who is uninsured to run into me.
Re:License-Plate Readers Let Police Collect Millions of Reco... by wtallis on Saturday June 29, 2013 @06:44PM (#5963964)
Your liability coverage has to be able to cover you doing significant damage to basically anything or anyone else out there on the road (potentially something really expensive), and probably includes some coverage for you being sued by the owner of whatever you hit. In contrast, the uninsured motorist protection is not only relatively unlikely to kick in for any given incident, it only has to cover your particular vehicle, and is probably actually subsidized by the rest of your premium.