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Anthony Furgison / Dreamstime.com

The Carlsbad, California, city council has voted to use license plate cameras to record every vehicle that enters the city. Council members said the move might deter criminals from breaking the law in Carlsbad.

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Charles Oliver is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. I think maybe now is a good time for more people to jump on the ‘there’s no legitimate reason to require license plates on cars that can’t be used to require license plates on people’ bandwagon with me.

    1. Radioactive

      that’s too big a band wagon for me…

    2. Lachowsky

      /hops on.

      How do you feel about mandatory insurance, registration, and license?

      1. Licensing should be done by insurers – that both ensures that the guys who are going to pay when you fuck up are confident in your abilities and removes the need for ‘mandatory’. Mandatory doesn’t work any way – as we’ve seen with both car *and now* health insurance.

        Registration – except for User Fees there’s no need to register vehicles. But title services (though nowadays vehicles are not the percentage of wealth that they used to be – or houses are), road maintenance, etc, are valid costs.

        But then again, if roads were private then what service (other than titling) would registration provide?

      2. Seriously Reason.

    3. Unicorn Abattoir

      What if they take their license plates off? Only permanent barcoding will work.

  2. They’re not fooling anyone. All that collected data is really going to be used for directed advertising.

  3. Jerryskids

    When information gathering and storage is fast and cheap, why not gather and keep any little bit you can? If it’s out there and available, who knows when such information might be useful? For example, I’ll bet it would be relatively quick and easy to find the names and addresses and phone numbers of the city council members who voted for this if someone were inclined to start a name-and-shame campaign against the Stasi wanna-be’s in our midst.

  4. DanO.

    Refugee camp gossip, conspiracy theories.
    (They’re the “fun” libertarians!)
    https://tinyurl.com/klpf2l7

  5. On the other side, I thought taking photographs in public was legal; no expectation of privacy and all that.
    I really, really, liked the part about not recording the registration data. Without it, the license plate is pretty much useless, right? Anything in the bill to require actually identifying the driver before pressing charges? Because I am sure the owner of a stolen car is not going to drive it in a heist.
    Blah, blah, tax money, benefit a company that donates to you, blah, blah.
    Anyway, it’s California, and they are going to secede, so the US constitution will not apply.

  6. On the other side, I thought taking photographs in public was legal; no expectation of privacy and all that.
    I really, really, liked the part about not recording the registration data. Without it, the license plate is pretty much useless, right? Anything in the bill to require actually identifying the driver before pressing charges? Because I am sure the owner of a stolen car is not going to drive it in a heist.
    Blah, blah, tax money, benefit a company that donates to you, blah, blah.
    Anyway, it’s California, and they are going to secede, so the US constitution will not apply.

    1. Got me!

  7. On the other side, I thought taking photographs in public was legal; no expectation of privacy and all that.
    I really, really, liked the part about not recording the registration data. Without it, the license plate is pretty much useless, right? Anything in the bill to require actually identifying the driver before pressing charges? Because I am sure the owner of a stolen car is not going to drive it in a heist.
    Blah, blah, tax money, benefit a company that donates to you, blah, blah.
    Anyway, it’s California, and they are going to secede, so the US constitution will not apply.

    1. Got me!

    2. DanO.

      Pro tip: you have to wait and refresh and wait some more.

  8. Got me again! submit goes to the article again, or to a blank screen.
    Third time, it posts multiple times.
    Like writing “I will not talk in class” used to be?

  9. gaoxiaen

    I haven’t been able to comment in a couple of weeks.

  10. Even better! Replied to the first one, got posted as a reply to both. Neat.
    I guess the robot overlords will not be that bad after all.

    1. Radioactive

      can’t be any worse than our Lizard Masters

  11. timbo

    I thought the leftist retards in cali would be against the man. I guess they cannot read real well?

    1. Memory Hole

      “Carlsbad is an affluent seaside resort city occupying a 7-mile stretch of Pacific coastline in northern San Diego County, California” — Sounds like Republican country.

      1. timbo

        There are plenty of leftists assholes in cali with money. Money or status is certainly no indication of cognizance of free markets and liberty.

      2. Sounds exactly like Limousine Liberal country – there aren’t any Republican enclaves in Southern California.

      3. Careless

        Sanders got more in donations than Trump. Solid blue.

  12. simplybe

    First the Feds start spying on everyone. Then the states. Now little podunk towns across America. When are you people going to wakeup.
    Autarchy or Bust

  13. Chuckgm3

    City of SD has been doing it already for years via vehicle mounted scanners. http://www.sandiegouniontribun…..story.html

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