Here's yet another disturbing example of bad data entry causing huge problems downstream. The title of this article is a misnomer, but the actual subject is even more concerning. Becoming the subject of police scrutiny and automatically and wrongly being assumed to be guilty of something, should be a huge concern to all of us. The fact that they don't have a straightforward way to feed back corrections into the database is perhaps the worst part of this disaster. As always, what sounds like a useful approach to law enforcement can be surprisingly bad, when human error isn't factored into the design.
I was looking into this issue a little more, and I found something even more frustrating: This isn't always just a computer being "dumb." It’s a human policy. Some police departments intentionally list a suspect's plate both ways, for example as "BOB123" and "B0B123" in their warrants, to ensure they don't miss the suspect. In doing so, they effectively "criminalize" the innocent owner of the second plate, turning their commute into a gauntlet of potential police confrontations.
As always, y'all be careful out there! Here are some suggestions, for those who are more likely to have this issue:
• Check your plate: If you have an "O" or a "0," be aware that you might be a victim of "Plate Alias" errors.
• Demand transparency: Ask local councils about the "misread rates" of the ALPR cameras they are buying with taxpayer money.
• Be Prepared: If pulled over, understand that the officer might be acting on "hot list" data that they believe is 100% accurate, even if it's a data entry error.
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