Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

ij.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 114 posts

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#103

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

waynecochran wrote: post #42
JohnMakin wrote: post #2

"at least" is doing a lot of work here. That's just what was analyzed. You have to assume the behavior is much more prevalent.

"14x times" to me sounds like statistically "zero" since I assume the sample size would be in the millions "at least."

When the IJ says it, they mean they have proof that they will stand behind of 14 examples. They decidedly aren't saying that it only happened 14 times.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#104

Post by AngryData »

busterarm wrote: post #19
goolz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police abuse of power in the US is a systemic problem. Your opinion is akin to thinking the Catholic church bears no burden for all the diddling they neglected to observe.

Do you make any distinction between sheriff's departments that are elected into their office (e.g. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office) vs commissioned LEOs?

I personally wouldn't, both positions are going to attract the same personality and be working in the same culture with the 99% the same influences. Maybe elected sheriffs are a bit better on average, but certainly not enough for it to show through ancedotaly or trust them in any capacity.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#105

Post by AngryData »

mulderc wrote: post #77

I am not against Plate Readers in theory but feel like you should have to have a warrant to look things up in the database.

I don't see why any plates should be looked up for any reason without evidence of a crime. If someone isn't enough of a problem for their plate to be flagged otherwise, it is not the governments business to know who is where or when.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#106

Post by AngryData »

infecto wrote: post #14
virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #10

Is there a framework—any framework, however hypothetical—that actually makes police accountable and subject to the laws they supposedly enforce?

I have always gravitated towards a market model. Force police, like doctors, to have malpractice insurance. Let for-profit insurance companies model what that risk looks like. Now cities have to make a financial decision when hiring cops that is directionally accurate to the risk of said cop. Imperfect but I don’t believe perfect systems exist. But this goes back to government agencies never thinking about budgets. M…

That might help for straight up murder cases, but I think it leaves a LOT of room for continued abuse of position and power with the only real risk being a small increase in monthly payment to offenders that makes it seem acceptable.

Re: Police Have Used License Plate Readers at Least 14x to Stalk Romantic Interests

#108

Post by gwerbin »

mrhottakes wrote: post #51
tfrancisl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess the only way to make this data available long term is by regulation. Then again, I would hope Flock is subject to FOIA already if they are collaborating with state or local law enforcement...

FOIA does not apply outside government entities. Maybe you can get the data from the entity itself, but good luck.

Which is one of many reasons why privatizing government services probably isn't a good idea.

You could also make different laws but that's probably not going to happen. Think about just about any of the important laws that we rely on for a stable and just society in the USA, and consider that most or all of them would be politically unviable if they didn't already exist. Including FOIA itself. Not a good situation.

Post reply on HN