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Who is this?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussion' started by PVT Pablo, Dec 17, 2020.

  1. Dec 17, 2020 at 6:00 PM
    #1
    PVT Pablo

    PVT Pablo [OP]

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    Saw this car driving the other day. Anybody know its affiliation or reason to have it configured to read license plates? The guy driving just looked like some regular dude. Had temporary VA plates.

    20201028_103805.jpg

    Just curious because it seems pretty weird.
     
  2. Dec 17, 2020 at 6:19 PM
    #2
    MeefZah

    MeefZah ---

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    The only private sector cars I've seen with those are repo vehicles. The LPRs are configured with a roster of plates of cars that are sought for repossession, dude drives around until the LPR pops on a target plate, then he calls in the tow truck. I normally see those on "undercover" tow trucks (the kind with all the shit concealed in the bed) and they do a one stop shop. It makes sense to have a small fuel efficient car do the prowling though; and then just call out the truck as needed.
     
  3. Dec 17, 2020 at 7:08 PM
    #3
    PVT Pablo

    PVT Pablo [OP]

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    Hmm, that makes a whole lot of sense and dispells all my conspiracy theories haha. I'm over here tin foil hatting all the possibilities.
     
    Toffees, ruiz4251, Toy4X4 and 2 others like this.
  4. Dec 17, 2020 at 7:14 PM
    #4
    4Runner fun

    4Runner fun Just the beginning...

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    I was @ a loss also. I guess I was thinking that was just on the interstate out driving on the interstate. They have to get across town!
    :alien::devil::help::spy:
    Same here! Lol
    Ryan. (Or am I...) LMAO
     
    MeefZah likes this.
  5. Dec 17, 2020 at 11:28 PM
    #5
    Trekker

    Trekker Regular Member

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    Mass license plate scanning is a very lucrative business. Private companies as well as police and universities will store the data. Sometimes it can be used to flag wanted vehicles or sold to third parties. Based on the lack of decals I'd guess that car belongs to one of the private companies.
     
  6. Dec 18, 2020 at 5:05 AM
    #6
    MeefZah

    MeefZah ---

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    Actually I don't know of any LE that buys data from private sector.

    In LE the most common uses are mobile and stationary, mobile obviously being on a car that moves around and stationary being on a pole at a point of entry. They work in 2 ways - they take digital images of everything with any letters or numbers in it (most commonly a license plate, but often accidentally images of house numbers and signs) and they gps and time stamp each image. 1st way: the LPR system runs those plates "live" to check for user- specified flags: stolen car, warrant subject, etc., and alerts the operator. 2nd way, an operator has a known car he's looking for so he inputs that data in the LPR system and it looks back through its images to try and match that plate, and provides a time and location of where it photographed the vehicle if it finds the vehicle in the system. That's useful in say a murder investigation, linking a car to a place at a certain time.

    LE don't generally use private sector as there may be issues with chain of evidence and such. Additionally, most states have laws regulating how long data can be stored by LE... 30 - 90 days is pretty average. No such restrictions on private sector... but private sector also doesn't have access to NCIC and state databases. Private basically has a picture of a license plate at a known location with 0 other data.
     
  7. Dec 18, 2020 at 5:11 AM
    #7
    Joekader

    Joekader New Member

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    It’s your girl following your or your rendezvous or
    Local police using their personal cars do to budget cuts
    Lol
     
  8. Dec 18, 2020 at 7:36 AM
    #8
    Abanero

    Abanero New Member

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    Well said.
     
  9. Dec 18, 2020 at 8:25 AM
    #9
    JET4

    JET4 New Member

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    my guess is someone looking for aliens.
     
  10. Dec 22, 2020 at 6:32 PM
    #10
    Sixgunz

    Sixgunz Gold Member

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    As someone else posted, it's a LPR. It's a big money industry these days. Not only do you have finance companies investing in it because they are out money on dead-beat car owners who hide their cars, the tow companies get paid by the finance companies if/when they grab a car up for repo.

    Along with that, most law enforcement agencies in the US either have access to, or subscribe, to a service that gives access to this data that private LPR's acquire. It is very, very expensive to get an account and it's like fight club...they don't talk about it, but it is a very common LEO tool that is used thousands of times a day.

    No one wants to hear this, but it all boils down to John Q. Public has no expectation of privacy regarding his license plate that is required for the privilege of driving on taxpayer-funded roads. It's been tested ad-nauseum in the Court system. From what I have seen, LEO LPR's are going away...they are expensive to purchase, expensive to maintain and there is little gain using them over the private LPR's, unless you are on an auto theft task force, etc.

    Just my .02$ worth
     
  11. Dec 22, 2020 at 8:49 PM
    #11
    MeefZah

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    I can't 100% say this is incorrect 'cause there's shit I don't know, but the 2 agencies I've worked for, both of who use / used LPRs, have not had any private sector interaction or contracts. I would be surprised to learn that any agencies do. Private sector and LE are looking for different things and most of what LE wants when they are trolling plate are stolens and wanted subjects - both of which are checked through the state database and NCIC, databases that are off limits to the private sector. It makes no sense to contract with the private sector to get less valuable information.

    Do you have a link or specific information to corroborate your comment?
     
  12. Dec 23, 2020 at 9:12 AM
    #12
    Sixgunz

    Sixgunz Gold Member

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    Google NVLS, Car Fax for Police, Leadsonline, NICB for law enforcement, Transunion for Law enforcement. They are all private companies who cater to LEOs and are key investigative tools. There are many others, but those are ones that come to mind. One other resource that people would never think LEOs use is Facebook. You'd be amazed what you find on Facebook when all you have is a name.

    I would even go so far as to say private databases are used more than LEO databases in most criminal investigations. There's only so much you can do with someone's criminal history, booking photo or registered vehicles. Tweakers never have their correct address on file - it's usually their parents or an apartment they lived in before getting hooked.
     
  13. Dec 23, 2020 at 10:31 AM
    #13
    flyinhoot

    flyinhoot When in doubt, Throttle out.

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    or just do what I do and use this plate. Free truck! :devil:

    IMG_9901.jpg
     
    4Runner fun likes this.
  14. Dec 23, 2020 at 3:10 PM
    #14
    MeefZah

    MeefZah ---

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    None of those are LPR readers though which is what I was referencing based on your original post in the thread. Agreed that private companies supply valuable info, but not specifically license plate based from LPRs.
     
  15. Dec 23, 2020 at 3:25 PM
    #15
    Sixgunz

    Sixgunz Gold Member

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    Did you google NVLS? It's a nationwide LPR database that buys all the information obtained by these guys driving around with LPRs attached to their cars. They only have LEO agencies as customers. It is used daily. Consider this. If your agency has 100 patrol vehicles with LPRs attached, what good do they do if the suspect or suspect vehicle in your case parks/lives in another city? Not much.

    *Edit - I forgot to mention - they also include all local, county and state LEO LPR's. For some reason, they don't have access to the Fed's LPRs...not sure why.
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2020
  16. Dec 23, 2020 at 3:56 PM
    #16
    MeefZah

    MeefZah ---

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    I did not, I will
     

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