Richard Diamond, editor of TheNewspaper.com, put together a nice piece on the eroding rights of the motorist. A few snippets:

The number of excuses given for government automobile seizures is expanding dramatically. Since 1991, the Commonwealth of Virginia has permanently seized 6,450 automobiles for crimes ranging from drug-running to “frequenting a bawdy place.” Now other jurisdictions are deploying new technologies to seize cars for the most minor offenses imaginable.

[...]

The ANPR technology that helped New Haven police nab Martone’s car was originally developed to locate stolen vehicles. Last year, in a large-scale ANPR test, UK police officers snapped 28 million digital photos, stopped 180,000 individuals for questioning and recovered some 1,100 stolen vehicles. They also discovered a new purpose for their cameras: revenue generation. Police used the system to issue 51,000 tickets to drivers for offenses ranging from speeding, to drinking from a water bottle, to talking on a mobile phone. Ecstatic UK officials now plan to equip every police force in the country with ANPR.

When Arlington, Virginia Treasurer Frank O’Leary learned of the technology, he too was ecstatic. “I rub my hands together in great glee and anticipation,” he said in a television interview. “I think it’s beautiful. It gives us a whole new dimension to collection.”

[...]

Albuquerque, New Mexico agrees. It’s the first jurisdiction to combine a seizure ordinance with a red light camera. If your car-ââ?¬â?? no matter who was driving-ââ?¬â?? blows through two red lights, they’ll take it for thirty days. The more cities follow suit, adopting get-rich-quick red light and speed camera schemes, the more likely you are to lose your wheels. If you forget to file a change of address form with the city, or the post offices loses your ticket in the mail, the first time you realize you’ve committed a “crime” will be when your car disappears.

I believe that same Arlington county official recently told Forbes that when it comes to collecting revenue, “we’re always looking for new ways to skin the cat.”

The “cat” being you and I, of course.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 7th, 2005 at 7:38 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.