[From Don't like speed cameras? Use them to punk your enemies ]
Students in Maryland have discovered that by printing a Maryland plate template on a sheet of glossy photo paper (using a license plate character font) they can then trick speed cameras. The students tape the faux plate over their own and purposefully speed in order to be caught by the speed camera, causing the real owner of the license plate to receive a citation in the mail.
Similar tricks have been used with facial recognition cameras. The larger point of this story is to remember that smart camera systems can be fooled. Its important to consider this in the design of the system and the larger organizational scheme the camera is used in. We can’t be mesmerized by these “smart” systems. There are many ways to trick them and we should plan for this possibility.
rshah Policy
[From theexpiredmeter.com » Red Light Cameras Help With Amber Alerts In Oak Forest]
When red light cameras arrived, many of us recognized it was only a matter of time before they would be used for other purposes. Recently, Gatso USA tested red light cameras that can read license plates in Oak Forest. It uses an 11 megapixel to capture enough detail for license plate recognition. The technology is ostensibly for identifying cars during an Amber Alert. Here is a clip from their press release.
Gatso USA, a leading photo enforcement systems provider, announced today that after one year of development, testing and customer evaluation, its flagship GS11 red light and speed camera now carries an AMBER Alert feature that can help ensure the safety of abducted children by decreasing law enforcement’s response time in locating suspected criminals. . . . The camera’s AMBER Alert feature enables police departments to search in real time for wanted or suspect vehicles at intersections or locations within a city’s network of compatible red light or speed photo enforcement cameras. When a suspect vehicle passes a camera location, the camera immediately reports the information back to the police department.
In a recent evaluation of Gatso USA’s GS11 AMBER Alert capability conducted in a south suburb of Chicago, Deputy Chief David DeMarco of the Oak Forest Police Department, the chief coordinator of the evaluation, stated, “I was amazed. Within 20 seconds of passing a camera location, we were notified in the field with a message and a photo that my car was detected at the camera location when the AMBER Alert feature was activated. It’s a priceless tool for law enforcement when looking for a suspect vehicle involved in an abduction or serious crime. We consider the evaluation to be highly successful.”
The evaluation was coordinated after the city of Oak Forest installed several of Gatso’s GS11 red light photo enforcement solutions for designated intersections within the city. The city of Oak Forest conducted an extensive evaluation of five red light camera photo enforcement solutions and selected Gatso based on product performance as well as the beneficial cost structure provided, which does not require any capital expenditure from the City or the police department.
rshah ALPR, Chicago, Red Light Cameras
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