What "Big Brother" looks like in Boston

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

Hi,
 
The attached photo is what Big Brother looks like in Boston.  The white SUV
in the photo is owned by the Boston Transportation Department (BTD).  One of
the jobs of this department is to give out parking tickets.  If a car has
too many unpaid parking tickets, the BTD will lock a Denver Boot (
<http://www.denverboot.com/> http://www.denverboot.com/) to one of the
wheels, making the car unmovable.  The boot doesn't get removed until all of
the outstanding parking tickets are paid for the car.
 
This BTD SUV is used to locate cars that need to be booted.  The two video
cameras on top the vehicle are hooked up to a laptop computer running
license plate scanning software.  As the vehicle is driven around the city,
this laptop is comparing license plate numbers of parked cars with a
database of license plate numbers of deadbeats who haven't paid their
parking tickets.  When a match is made, the driver and his copilot hop out
the SUV and boot the matching car.  In the attached photo, the car behind
the SUV is being booted in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston.
 
Back in the summer, I made a public records request to the BTD for the
database of scanned license plate numbers that is being collected by this
vehicle.  However, the BTD told me at the time that the database is not a
public record, because the database is owned instead by AutoVu, the Canadian
company who makes the license plate scanner software used in the vehicle.
This software is being "loaned" to the City of Boston as part of a "beta"
test program.
 
I highly recommend checking out the AutoVu Web site (Flash required):
 
    <http://www.autovu.com> http://www.autovu.com
 
Here's also a Boston Globe article about this BTD SUV:
 
    <http://www.autovu.com/website/content/pressreleases/Boston_Globe.html>
http://www.autovu.com/website/content/pressreleases/Boston_Globe.html
 
Richard M. Smith
 <http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com> http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
 
 
hi

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