scholarly journals The Surveillance State: Do License Plate Readers Impinge Upon Americans' Civil Liberties?

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jourdin Hermann
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberties ◽  
License Plate ◽  
License Plate Readers

Estimating the Effects of Police Technology Using Quasi-Experimental Methods

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian B. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Public Safety ◽  
License Plate ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Police Technology ◽  
License Plate Readers

Law enforcement agencies are adopting a variety of new surveillance technologies at a fast pace. These technologies could have substantial benefits in terms of public safety, but, for many of them, their ability to reduce crime is unknown. Although a small experimental literature addresses some of these technologies, many of the implementations have been too small to provide an accurate measurement of their potential. In this paper, I explore the advantages and make general suggestions about the use of quasi-experimental methodologies in estimating the public safety benefits of police technology. I also consider the specific case of license plate readers and provide some examples of difference-in-differences approaches that could be used to study their efficacy.

Optimizing the geographic deployment of hot spot patrols with license plate readers

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-650
Author(s):  
Christopher S. Koper ◽  
Bruce G. Taylor ◽  
Sangjun Park
Keyword(s):  
Hot Spot ◽  
License Plate ◽  
License Plate Readers

The Social Psychology of Racially Biased Policing: Evidence-Based Policy Responses

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
Kimberly Barsamian Kahn ◽  
Karin D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
License Plate ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Reform Legislation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Explicit Bias ◽  
License Plate Readers ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Police killings of unarmed African Americans, such as George Floyd in 2020, continue to cause nationwide protests and calls for change. Psychological science knows much about biased policing and can inform policy to promote equitable policing. Social psychology’s extensive findings on stereotyping, attitudes, and intergroup relations help clarify the role of officer racial bias. This article reviews implicit and explicit bias, race-crime stereotypes, intragroup bias, ingroup favoritism, stereotype threat, and dehumanization in policing interactions, all of which can lead to racially disparate use of force. Based on this science, some policy responses can mitigate bias: Officer level de-biasing training, body-worn cameras, automatic license plate readers, and federal policing reform legislation are discussed. The lack of a coordinated, national effort to collect and analyze police use of force data undermines tracking fatal incidents and bias therein, which are therefore harder to remediate.

Estimation and Measurement of Travel Time by Vehicle Detectors and License Plate Readers

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadao Takaba ◽  
Takeshi Morita ◽  
Takashi Hada ◽  
Tsutomu Usami ◽  
Morie Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
License Plate ◽  
License Plate Readers

Reduction of Video License Plate Data

2002 ◽  
Vol 1804 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajeev Gupta ◽  
Jon D. Fricker ◽  
David P. Moffett
Keyword(s):  
Data Reduction ◽  
Video Processing ◽  
Character Recognition ◽  
Reduction Process ◽  
Data File ◽  
Video Data ◽  
License Plate ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Electronic File ◽  
License Plate Readers

Video license plate surveys have been used for more than a decade in Indiana to help produce origin-destination tables in corridors and small areas. In video license plate surveys, license plate images are captured on videotape for data reduction at the analyst’s office. In most cases, the letters and numbers on a license plate are manually transcribed to a data file. This manual process is tedious, time-consuming, and expensive. Although automated license plate readers are being implemented with success elsewhere, their dependence on high-end equipment makes them too expensive for most applications in Indiana. Presented are the results of an attempt to use standard video cameras and tapes, readily available video processing equipment, and open-source software to minimize the human role in the data reduction process and thus reduce the expenses involved. The process of automatically transcribing video data can be divided into subprocesses. Analog video data are digitized and stored on a computer hard disk. The resulting digital images are further processed, by using image-processing algorithms, to locate and extract the license plate and time stamp information. Character recognition techniques can then be applied to read the license plate number into an electronic file for the desired analysis. The described video license plate data reduction (VLPDR) software can identify video frames that contain vehicles and discard the remaining frames. VLPDR can locate and read the time stamps in most of these frames. Although VLPDR cannot read the license plate numbers into a data file, this final step is made easier by a user-friendly graphical user interface. VLPDR saves a significant amount of manual data reduction. The amount of labor saved depends on the parameters chosen by the user.

The rapid diffusion of license plate readers in US law enforcement agencies

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Lum ◽  
Christopher S. Koper ◽  
James Willis ◽  
Stephen Happeny ◽  
Heather Vovak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
State Funding ◽  
License Plate ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Police Agencies ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Law Enforcement Leaders ◽  
License Plate Readers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to document the diffusion of license plate readers (LPRs) in the USA, examining the variety, evolution and tracking of their uses through a national survey. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a national, stratified, representative survey of US law enforcement agencies with 100 or more officers. Findings LPR technology is currently used by at least two-thirds of larger police agencies, which represents a more than threefold increase in LPR acquisition in the last 10 years. The number of LPRs per agency, while small (about eight on average), has also more than doubled. Federal and state funding, advocacy by law enforcement leaders, and the intuitive appeal of LPRs have likely contributed to this rapid adoption. While LPRs are still primarily used to detect and recover stolen automobiles in patrol, their use has expanded into other types of investigative and security functions. Despite the increased use and numbers of LPRs in policing, their use is highly discretionary and infrequently tracked. Practical implications LPRs continue to be widely used in law enforcement, despite a lack of strong research evidence for their crime prevention benefits. Further studies are needed on the most effective ways for agencies to utilize small numbers of LPRs and the potential return on investment for acquiring larger numbers of the devices. Originality/value This study tracks the history of LPR diffusion and use and goes beyond prior law enforcement surveys by examining specific uses of LPRs and the extent to which agencies track their uses and outcomes.

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