cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/DeFlock@sh.itjust.works/p/2499168/man-creates-diy-flock-style-cameras-that-only-scan-police-plates-and-for-some-reason-th
“Hey man, there’s a high statistical probability that I abuse my wife in that car? Some things are private!”
I’m a school bus driver and a few years ago I had a cop pass me while my red flashers were on and the stop sign was out and kids were about to get off the bus and cross the street. He was driving with one hand and looking at his phone in the other hand. He could have easily run a kid over. And then they probably would have found some way to blame me for it.
We have cameras now that automatically detect this and send out tickets, but we didn’t at the time. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway since the cops have to review the footage before any ticket goes out.
Police gets removed from this system. So they don’t get tickets.
I’m curious how tickets are sent out. I wouldn’t think a school system would have law enforcement authority to issue citations. This is coming from someone who had 4 family members drive school busses for most of their life so just wondering how this works legally. Back in the day they’d take the plate down and an officer would go to their house and give them a stern warning since that’s basically all they can do since they didn’t personally witness the infraction occur.
The camera is supposed to take a photo of the cars plates and then send it to the local police. Police are supposed to validate then mail a ticket, at least for Colorado.
The cameras are from a company named Bus Patrol. They haven’t really told us much about how the program works, but as I understand it the district pays nothing in upfront costs. Supposedly Bus Patrol pays for the installation and then they get all the revenue up to the point where the cameras and their profit margin are covered; after that the ticket revenues are split evenly between the local police department and the school district. A figure of a million dollars as the cost for installing cameras on our 40 buses was thrown up by somebody, but that seems a bit unlikely as that means the cameras cost $25,000 per bus. Maybe that’s correct, I dunno.
I have nearly no info about the legality of this, but they’re pretty common at this point. I know one difference is that if you’re caught by an actual cop speeding past a bus’ red lights you get a fine and points on your license, but if you get a mailed ticket from one of these cameras it’s just a fine. Presumably it’s because they can’t always tell who was actually driving the vehicle. It might be a case where they can’t really take any action if a person just refuses to pay the fine, and they just send out tickets because some or most people will just pay it.
$25,000 per bus seems somewhat reasonable, $10,000 in overpriced highly certified hardware $10,000 in overpriced software and $5,000 profit.
"Al-Powered Detection
Each bus is equipped with an Al-driven school bus camera system that identifies stop-arm violations in real time." Interesting…
We have cameras now that automatically detect this and send out tickets
Do they matter to cops? If they get paid, they get paid by tax money, no?
I guess the camera bit is good for proof at least, I assume there’s a backup of the images or whatever.
But does that make you a roving part of the survailance system, too?
Do they matter to cops? If they get paid, they get paid by tax money, no?
As I mentioned in another comment, apparently the PD splits the ticket revenue with the school district after the camera company gets their installation and profit margin covered. Cops get paid their salaries from the PD budget which is mostly from tax revenues but also from other sources like tickets and these cameras. A higher PD budget means more perks including higher salaries and paid overtime and more benefits, so while they can’t just stuff the money in their pockets (usually) they do benefit from these alternative revenue sources.
does that make you a roving part of the survailance system, too?
Probably. There’s nothing I can do about this without losing my job.
Surveillance for thee, but not for me.
… Yet when Sistilli pointed out the double standard at play here, the officers still didn’t get it. …
It’s difficult to make a man see your point when his salary depends on him not seeing it.
Sistilli released a couple of YouTube videos showing his homemade ALPR to track police cars. It wasn’t actually very effective. It only correctly identified two out of seven cruisers that passed his location during the hour he tested it, and it did not capture the license plates of either one, which is about as reliable as a real Flock camera. Still, that was enough for several Peel Regional Police officers to pay Sistilli a visit about his cop-detecting ALPR, even though he’d done nothing wrong.
This neat trick doesn’t work in America, where they’d just arrest/deport/kill you for doing this
Protect this man at all cost we need this similar tech in our country.
Doesn’t frigate have an LPR function?
ACAB
This sounds like an Onion article.
Aww
Anyways…
