I'm not an alarmist overly worried about police collecting data but this did catch my eye:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/are-aut...tion-of/nTKg7/

Basically police departments throughout the state as well as the Georgia DPS are installing license plate readers that do noting but read passing car's plates and run them against a data base to alert police as to whether the car, driver or registered owner is wanted for anything.

It's all well and good I guess except that the devil is in the details when it comes to what they do with the stored data and whether it amounts to an invasion of privacy and cross constitutional limits. And it seems these reading machines are being installed throughout the country in many other states. How about if they installed them on all interstates as you enter a state and they just read all cars?

Just last year I received a letter from my county toll road authority whose roads I use with a chip device to pay my tolls saying that they photographed a plate for a car I used to own and had sold over 4 years ago and they said the car was illegally using the toll roads without paying I was responsible even though I legally did not own the car anymore. Turned out upon closer examination that the tag reader that transcribes the photo image of the plate had misread a letter and the error was what brought up my old tag. It took me a while to get it straightened out but the letter I received said my ID was being put into a data base that police use and I could be subject to arrest if I did not take care of the fine associated with the supposed violation. Arrested for the error of technology? That's pretty bad!

And one has to wonder as police departments, state and local governments suffer with financial difficulties could the sale of this information seem like a normal and legal way to raise needed funding.

Is it just another spot on the slippery slope?