--- From: "Danny Yavuzkurt" <ady1at_private> To: "Declan McCullagh" <declanat_private> Subject: NYT: Armed With Radar, Civilians Take Aim At Speeders Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 09:01:28 -0500 Article from the NY Times about regular people who take the law, er, radar guns, into their own hands, then turn over information on speeders to the police (though at least for now it doesn't have any real punitive effect, other than a 'please stop speeding' letter sent to the owner of the car). Perhaps, though, this article showcases a growing trend of the citizenry cooperating with, even deputizing itself to, the police. Good or bad? Are the US populace slowly changing into collaborators to a police state? Or should regular citizens have the right to determine *by themselves* (with the help of technology) whether people are breaking the law, and to report it to the police (who, after all, can't be there all the time)? A few interesting issues to think about... -Danny http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/25/national/25RADA.html March 25, 2002 Armed With Radar, Civilians Take Aim at Speeders By THE NEW YORK TIMES PLEASANTON, Calif. - They never aspired to work for the law. They did not give their operation a code name. But when things got out of control in their neighborhood, Amy Hiss and Kathy Maio teamed up for a bona fide sting operation, with full police backing. They stood at opposite ends of the block, the botanist and the librarian, hid behind trees and communicated with each other via cellphone. Ms. Hiss held the radar gun, while her partner wrote down the license numbers of their quarry: drivers exceeding 30 miles per hour. "We even had her little girl working with us - in case the cellphones went out," said Ms. Hiss, 37, whose day job is researching wetlands and endangered plants for an engineering firm. "It was exciting at first," she said of the stakeout. "But it got boring fast." The police in a growing number of cities, including this San Francisco suburb, are lending radar guns to residents who want to help crack down on traffic offenders. The volunteers then turn the information over to the police, who send letters to car owners telling them that their cars were seen speeding and reminding them to observe speed limits. No one is ticketed, because a car's registered owner might not be the driver. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Politech dinner in SF on 4/16: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2002/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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