Cameras sold for stolen vehicle recovery are now generating $1,251 mailed fines for phone use, raising serious legal and privacy concerns.

A woman drives with both hands on the wheel. Her phone sits face-down on her lap. No officer pulls her over. No lights flash. Weeks later, a $1,251 ticket arrives in the mail. The evidence: a single frame from a Camera surveillance app. The charge: phone use while driving.

Automated camera companies market their devices as automated license plate readers — tools for catching stolen cars, flagging warrants, and aiding serious investigations.

Sold as a Crime Tool. Used as a Fine Machine.

  • Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    I know of at least 1 study on human behaviour, where an image of an eye was added to a bathroom and increased the number of people who washed their hands after using the facilities, that suggests people do in fact need the “threat” of feeling they’re being watched to behave responsibly.
    Ultimately, when you’re in control of something with the potential destructiveness of a car, you do need to be monitored for everyone’s safety. The only way to have a society without that level of monitoring is to have one without general access to cars.

      • Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        Yeah you shouldn’t have guns either, you don’t even use them for what you’re meant to.
        Cars might not be weapons, but mistakes made or malfunctions that happen while controlling them can cause as much if not far more damage than many weapons, even before including distractions like phones. The options are surveillance or getting rid of cars.