America has gone nuts
How many top end speeders out there reading this? All of you? I thought so. Top end speeding is what we used to call speeding. It’s defined by the city of Portland as going 10 mph over the limit. Any of you commit extreme DUI? Probably some of you. More than you think. It’s what […]
The aggressive driver in the mirror
A strange legal fight has been raging in federal courts, as judges answer questions like “is robbery a violent crime?” The answer is often “no”, for the same reason you can be convicted of “aggressive driving” without doing anything out of the ordinary. When Congress prescribed extra punishment for people with a prior conviction for […]
Another week, another leak
Two weeks in a row, I wrote about surveillance of drivers and only to learn hours later that the problem was even worse than I thought. Last week we learned cell phone spy LocationSmart didn’t require authentication to use its tracking API. Anybody in the world could track you. During the rise of Facebook somebody […]
A one way street
A lot of news came out shortly after I wrote about a town’s plan to deploy cell phone trackers to keep nonresidents out. The New York Times told me it was even easier than I thought. Instead of buying hardware, police can use an online tracking service. A tracking service vulnerable to hackers, according to […]
Maintain radio silence
Did you remember to turn on airplane mode on your phone when driving through Belmont, Massachusetts? Town officials want to ban nonresidents from town roads. Part of their plan is to track your phone to catch you trespassing. Phones and tablets are very talkative. Even when you’re not using them they’re transmitting signals to see […]
The myth of manual review
Some cities with ticket cameras promise that human police officers will review every ticket to keep the robots under control. In fact the robots are running the show with a little help from corporate accountants. Your camera probably has a feature where it looks around the room and draws boxes around the faces it sees. […]
Share the wealth
Following overtime fraud and persistent failure to meet ticket quota, Governor Baker disbanded Massachusetts State Police Troop E. About 20 officers have retired or been suspended. They took overtime speed trap shifts and didn’t write speeding tickets. The rest, who made quota or didn’t get caught, will be reassigned to other troops. Some editorials called […]
Pay by the mile per hour
Reporters are catching on to the reason governments want to tax cars by the mile. They track miles by planting a spy in your car. The spy also knows when you’ve been speeding. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. You owe $10 for a week of driving and $10,000 for a week of speeding. […]
A well-funded mandate
Michigan State Police ran a “distracted driving” patrol that looked a lot like regular traffic work. They ticketed two drivers for texting. The rest of the stops — 147 of them — were fishing expeditions or license plate hits. Few departments enforce laws against texting while driving. Barring bad luck or a crash investigation, it’s […]
These boots are made for stealing
Another reminder that revenue-based enforcement leads to corruption. A Florida couple is prison-bound after stealing thousands of cars and demanding ransom payments. Not for extortion or theft, which they would deserve. For “aggravated white-collar crime,” which is a fancy way of saying they failed to pay the City of Miami to look the other way. […]