When it Comes to Auto Privacy, You Get What’s Coming to You
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared as NMA E-Newsletter #299, emailed to NMA members in October 2014. The information is still pertinent, and if anything, the privacy issue for motorists has become more acute with time. If you would like to receive the weekly NMA E-Newsletter, a one-topic discussion, consider becoming a member of the […]
“Driving While Black” Billboard Shines Light on City Ticket Records
By a Michigan NMA Member Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared as NMA E-Newsletter #602 from July 2020. If you would like to receive the weekly NMA E-Newsletter, join today! On July 6, an electronic billboard appeared along I-96 in Redford Township, Michigan, just east of the city limits of Livonia. It warned drivers leaving […]
Someone Was Driving My Car & Got In an Accident. What Do I Do?
By Travis Patterson What might happen if your vehicle is in an accident when someone other than you is behind the wheel? When a friend or family member asks to borrow your car, you may not think about the implications of a car crash. You might think it is a generous act to help out […]
Another Brick in the Wall: A National License Plate Tracking (ALPR) Network Announced
By Shelia Dunn, NMA Communications Director and Joe Cadillic, MassPrivatel Blog Private company Flock Safety recently announced that it had created a national license plate tracking network. Bad enough that local police and private companies use automated license plate readers to watch where all of us are coming and going. Now the data will be […]
Summer Update from the ALLIANCE FOR TOLL-FREE INTERSTATES
Editor’s Note: The ATFI is a coalition (of which the NMA is a member) which work tirelessly to maintain the longstanding policy of protecting existing interstates from new tolls. ATFI’s Charlie Kiefer has given the NMA permission to showcase the summer update. Due to the current global pandemic caused by COVID-19, the tolling industry has […]
Do we really need Smart Cities?
Written by Shelia Dunn, NMA Communications Director with Joe Cadillic, MassPrivatel Blog The Street Surveillance Watch Blog comes to you biweekly on the National Motorists Association Blog. If you have comments or suggestions, write a comment after this blog or contact us at nma@motorists.org. Do we really need Smart Cities? Even before the COVID0-19 crisis, […]
The History of License Plates: Evolution & Development
The license plate has become so ubiquitous in our everyday lives that we rarely stop to think how and why it was invented, when the need for it arose, and where it first appeared. Rarely do we stop to consider the role of the license plate in our life, how it helps keep us safe, […]
Traffic Stop 101: Stop and Identify Laws
By NMA Texas Member Ted Levitt I want to impart some information here about traffic stops, and before I do that, I want to tell a story about a traffic stop I saw recently on television. I will not get into the validity (or not) of the Sovereign Citizen Movement here, but I do know […]
A Car’s Black Box and a City’s ALPR Program Put to the Test in two Different Courts: NMA E-Newsletter #566
Two motorists recently won Fourth Amendment decisions. Both cases will likely be appealed, and will have major privacy rights implications for how and where we drive our vehicles. ALPRs in Florida Raul Mas Canosa was mad and decided he wasn’t going to take it anymore. The city where he lives, Coral Gables, Florida, tracked his […]
Massive 30-State, Real-Time ALPR Database Revealed: NMA E-Newsletter #558
By guest writer Joe Cadillic of the Massprivatel Blog Our worst fears about automatic license plate readers (ALPR) are coming to fruition, and no one in public understands just how much our privacy will be invaded. This summer, I warned everyone on my blog, and in the NMA Weekly E-Newsletter #554, that police in Arizona […]