#1 Surveillance Cameras
All over the United States, a vast network of surveillance cameras is very carefully watching our highways. The following is an excerpt from a current article in the Baltimore Sun about this phenomenon…
#2 Automated License Plate Readers
Much more than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time, helping police pinpoint stolen cars and fleeing killers. But the program quietly has expanded beyond what any person had imagined even a handful of years ago.
With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the details from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.
#3 Ridiculous Regulations
Some of the new “auto safety laws” going in around the nation are definitely absurd.
For example, do you buckle up your pet when you go for a ride? Well, in New Jersey you can now be fined up to $1000 for not possessing your pet correctly restrained even though you are out driving.
#4 Outrageous Fines
In numerous places of the country, unpaid traffic tickets can rapidly grow to be a main economic burden.
For example, the new tolls on the 520 floating bridge in Seattle are absolutely killing some commuters…..
Registered automobile owners who do not pay their toll within 80 days or more will be mailed a $40 civil penalty for every single unpaid toll transaction in addition to a $5 reprocessing fee.
#5 Oppressive Toll Roads
Toll roads have turn into one of the favorite “revenue raising tools” for our politicians.
At this point the tolls on some roads have turn out to be so incredibly oppressive that many men and women basically can’t afford to drive on them anymore.
And for some purpose the toll increases are coming specifically fast and furious this year.
#6 Red Light Cameras
Red light cameras are another favorite “revenue raising tool” for the control freaks that run items.
#7 Speed Traps
In the old days, speed traps were mainly about making the roads safer.
Today, they are mainly about raising money.
One police chief up in Michigan has even admitted that the nature of his job has fundamentally changed….
“When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you are a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues.”
Speed traps are becoming much more common almost everywhere, but some regions of the country are worse than other people.
#8 Government Spying
It has been revealed that the federal government has been secretly placing GPS tracking devices on thousands of vehicles in order to track the movements of men and women that they are interested in watching.
Most of the time the men and women involved have not even been charged with any crimes.
#9 Extraction Devices
If you get pulled over by police, you never ever know what to count on these days. Previously, I have written about how law enforcement authorities in some parts of the U.S. are using “extraction devices” to download information out of the cell phones of motorists that they pull over.
The following is how a recent article on CNET News described the capabilities of these “extraction devices:
The devices, sold by a company known as Cellebrite, can download text messages, images, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have numerous interfaces to work with various models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.
#10 VIPR Teams
If all of the above was not poor enough, now we have to deal with TSA “VIPR teams” terrorizing us on the highways.
If you routinely travel across the country, there is a good likelihood that you have currently encountered one of their “unannounced security screenings”.
The following is from a neighborhood news report down in Tennessee about how nearby authorities are working with VIPR teams to fight “terrorism” on the interstates….