Homeland Security's Tech Wonders

Lucas123 writes "The multi-billion dollar budget of the Department of Homeland Security has spawned a myriad of new, whiz-bang technology that includes things like keychain-size, remote-controlled aerial vehicles designed to collect and transmit data for military and homeland security uses. It also includes infrared cameras that capture license plate images to match them in milliseconds to police records. "Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle," says Mark Windover, president of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, which is marketing its product to 250 U.S. police agencies."

Re:bureaucratic incompetance is the greatest threa

[ScrewMaster]

Probably that means they should be spying upon themselves more. That way, if an agent figures out something useful maybe someone in another agency will learn about it and be able to make use of it. At least they won't need to worry about lack of inter-agency cooperation and all that.

Look up "incest".

[khasim]

There is a myth that seems to infest these new fangled security organisations, that if only they can gather sufficient data they will be able to identify and prevent bad things happening. They cannot, but are willing to spend huge amounts of money in the attempt.

The companies making the products often hire politicians who voted to purchase those products to fight [crime|terrorism|kiddie_porn].

It's all an incestuous cycle.

Plate Capture technology

[kilodelta]

Do you want to know what it is being used for? I'll tell you, revenue generation. The city of Providnce, RI recently changes the rules regarding parking tickets. It used to be that if you had five or more you might find your car booted. Now it's two tickets and it's not the police doing the booting, but a private company.

I've seen the vehicle, it's a mini-van with cameras mounted at the top of both A pillars and pointing outward and a little above curb level. When they spot a vehicle the put on a boot with a keypad. To get the boot off you have to call the 800 number, pay on average $350 then remove the boot and return it to the police department.

The other little thing that went into effect were tons of new parking meters. The one thing right about that is the kiosk system, no individual meters. It prints a ticket that you place in your car. And it takes credit cards. The kiosk is also run via solar power and uses a MESH network connection.

So not all those technologies are used to spy per se, but as revenue generation tools.

Re:We need "CAPTCHA" license plates.

[Technician]

Even simpler. Make a long bumper sticker that runs the entire length of the bumper right up to both sides of the plate. Fill it with random text and numbers the same size as the text using a carbon base ink on the sticker. Cover it with black window tint film. You now have a nice black bumper. The auto IR camera sees an extreme plate as it makes the window film transparant.