When reasonable restrictions are needed, I particularly dislike unreasonable ones that make a show but wouldn't pass.
> A recipient of assistance under Title 23, United States Code, may not use automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling
This one-liner amendment is its own poison pill: it will also outlaw traffic enforcment, cameras used to ticket people who run red lights or speed, since neither are tolling.
Sponsors from both parties, but the effect is anti-Democratic. Currently per rough search:
- 9 states prohibit speed and red-light cameras - 8 Republican (and Maine)
- 5 states expressly permit speed cameras - 4 Democrat (and Tennessee) (CA permitting red-light)
Obviously this reduces revenues (in democratic cities) and also drives police/traffic employment. Perhaps ICE abuse and union employment motivates the Democratic sponsor (Jesus "Chuy" García - parents are Teamsters, himself in a retail union). I would have encourage him to permit the use for tolling AND traffic enforcement.
> This one-liner amendment is its own poison pill: it will also outlaw traffic enforcment, cameras used to ticket people who run red lights or speed, since neither are tolling.
How did traffic enforcement work before these systems?
Worse and more racistly.
Traffic cameras and automated ticketing systems should be unconstitutional. If you are facing legal consequences for something, you have the constitutional right to face your accuser. Obviously that precludes any and all automated systems.
The only reason they aren't deemed unconstitutional is because technically they don't quite meet the qualification for being legal action as they are "merely" fines. Even though if you ignore the fines you face legal consequence.
If a jurisdiction wants to ticket drivers, they should be constitutionally mandated to have a person with authority out on the street writing tickets. It should not be acceptable for an automated system to hand out monetary and legal damages entirely unsupervised and unaccountable. That flies directly in the face of constitutional rights.
Maybe it's the point. Maybe the idea is to make it obviously not pass, frame the entire idea as unreasonable, and thus prevent the topic from being discussed again for long enough. Deliberately throw the unwanted baby with the proverbial bathwater.
I don't know about this framing. It's a reasonable thing to accept a small theoretical increase of traffic accidents resulting from less enforcement (which could be compensated for in other ways) to lose a massive, invasive surveillance state mechanism from a nation that is becoming increasingly hostile to its own citizens.
In fact, the traffic argument was the original poisoned pill - once those went in, everyone was fine with the gains, until LEO's and the government, assisted by nearly unregulated private companies were like "well, we already have the data..."
Yep.