WTOP:
Homeland security officials in the Washington area plan to dramatically expand the use of automated license plate readers to prevent possible terrorist attacks.
Officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia have agreed to install 200 license plate readers on police vehicles, at airports and along roads. The plan announced Friday will be funded by federal homeland security grants for the area.
Britain used the readers in the 1990s to deter Irish Republican Army attacks. But in the United States, the devices have mostly been used to regulate parking or catch car thieves.
The readers will scan every license plate that passes by and will run the numbers through federal criminal and terrorist databases.
New York officials recently said they plan to scan license plates of all cars entering Manhattan.
Privacy experts say it’s a vast expansion of the use of technology for security.
Well, duh.
I’m sure there’s a way to harness the power created by George Orwell rolling over in his grave.
H/t: Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge
And for those wondering why I refer to Matt Drudge as Matt “threat to democracy” Drudge, it’s because Ted Baxter — I mean Bill O’Reilly — referred to Drudge as such after Drudge posted O’Reilly’s less than stellar book sales figures.
Roll the transcript!:
[BILL] O’REILLY: Now I want to make it quite clear to everybody that the right-wing Web sites do this, too. I mean you can’t believe a word Matt Drudge says, for example. They’ll just spin it and twist it and take it out of proportion every which way.
[…]
O’REILLY: Well, who knows this? Who said this? Now you’ve got the Matt Drudges of the world and these other people, Michael Moore and all of these crazies, all right, no responsibility, and legitimate journalists — I see stuff in “The New York Times” taken off Web sites all the time by their columnists and reporters. They just throw it in there. And then…
[…]
O’REILLY: And I mean that is — that is a threat to democracy, I think.
Yes, damn those people. They have some nerve expressing their opinions. Only I, your pretentious, self-absorbed Overlord at Fox News should be able to do that!
Why do people still watch that dork?