Resident donates $22,000 for Traffic Enforcement

[ChaneysGotaGun]

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregio...ry/103545.html

Buffalo News: "Town of Tonawanda police are getting one of those hightech license plate readers for traffic enforcement, and motorists will have a generous resident to thank — or blame.

This week, the Police Chief asked the Town Board to authorize the $22,425 purchase. However, it won’t cost the town a dime.

A check covering the cost has already been written by James C. McNeilly.

The supervisor recalled a similarly sized donation last year to the town’s paramedic foundation.

The donor in that case was a longtime resident of the town whose parents had lived there all of their lives, Paramedic Supervisor Carla E. Bevilacqua said.

The money, which was donated through the James V. Ryan Paramedic Foundation, helped support the cost of the emergency response trailer."


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Excellent. Start nailing those delinquent deadbeat dads, scofflaws and uninsured drivers.
Now maybe someone else will step up and write a check for red light cameras...

[Eat My Gun]

If only it were so. The sad fact is that this technology is only as good as the data entry clerks who work at the DMV. We all know what perfectionists they are...At the very least, numerous drivers will be unnecessarily stopped due to a clerical error. The unfortunate ones will have their cars towed and/or end up arrested.

Woe to those who've reported their cars stolen in the City of Buffalo, only to have them recovered later. BPD is notorious for its failure to remove recovered vehicles from the stolen vehicle database. Once the license plate reader "hits" on a stolen car, you're looking at the distinct possibility of getting dragged out of your own car at gunpoint by an over-excited suburban cop. Not an attractive prospect...

Most problematic from my point of view is the complete lack of probable cause for the traffic stop. Essentially what the police are doing is running a computer check of license plates and pulling cars over without any underlying traffic violation. That seems odd when one considers that, when police use radar, they are prohibitted from relying solely on the radar readout and required to first do a visual estimate, using the radar only to confirm that estimate. Yet they can completely rely on this license plate reader????

Big brother is indeed watching...

[CheektowagaFan]

When you applied for your Driver License and License Plates you should ahve read the fine print.............



ITS A PRIVLLAGE TO DRIVE IN NYS NOT A RIGHT. Dont like the scanning idea. Dont drive a csr

[Eat My Gun]

The "privilege to drive" argument lends itself well to the slippery slope of even more intrusive police-state tactics.

Why don't we just authorize the police to stop any car the feel like, without burdening them with actually having to come up with a reason? Driving is a "privilege" after all. Why let the courts create problems with such absurd notions as "probable cause?"

All that constitutional nonsense should not be allowed to interfere with the state's revenue collection measures.

[ChaneysGotaGun]

Why don't we just authorize the police to stop any car the feel like, without burdening them with actually having to come up with a reason?
All that constitutional nonsense should not be allowed to interfere with the state's revenue collection measures.

I'd support that amendment. Many years ago, suburban cops were stationed at the borders of the first ring suburbs. Their job was to question all undesirables, and route them back toward the City of Buffalo. This proactive approach to crime prevention assured that inner city street urchins and criminals did not infiltrate the suburbs.

(sigh) Shortly thereafter, a two-bit criminal named Ernesto Miranda came along and forever screwed things up.

[Northshore]

I'd support that amendment. Many years ago, suburban cops were stationed at the borders of the first ring suburbs. Their job was to question all undesirables, and route them back toward the City of Buffalo. This proactive approach to crime prevention assured that inner city street urchins and criminals did not infiltrate the suburbs.

(sigh) Shortly thereafter, a two-bit criminal named Ernesto Miranda came along and forever screwed things up.

Yep, that Constitution is a pain.

I hear that Iran has no such middling issues. Why not move there?

[tgace]

State V Donis

Petitioners assert that the police should not be permitted to process an inquiry through the MDT until they observe a driver commit an apparent motor vehicle violation. We disagree. The use of MDTs by police officers should not be limited only to those instances when they actually witness a violation of motor vehicle laws. By the time an officer observes a vehicle improperly change lanes or speed down the highway, that officer no longer needs to use the MDT. The officer has a permissible basis to effectuate a stop.

The United States Supreme Court has recognized that "it is unreasonable to have an expectation of privacy in an object required by law to be located in a place ordinarily in plain view from the exterior of [an] automobile. . . . The exterior of a car, of course, is thrust into the public eye, and thus to examine it does not constitute a 'search.'" New York v. Class, 475 U.S. 106, 114, 106 S. Ct. 960, 966, 89 L. Ed. 2d 81, 90 (1986); see also Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351, 88 S. Ct. 507, 511, 19 L. Ed. 2d 576, 582 (1967) (stating that Fourth Amendment does not protect what "a person knowingly exposes to the public"). Although the Class Court considered the expectation of privacy in a vehicle identification number, the same analysis logically applies to a vehicle's license plate, which is displayed on the exterior of the car in plain view.

Moreover, the Legislature has required the display of a license plate on both the front and rear of all cars registered in New Jersey. N.J.S.A. 39:3-33. The very purpose of that law is to identify the owner of a car should the need arise from his or her license plate. To fulfill that purpose, police officers randomly using MDTs should have the right to determine from a motorist's license plate the status of the vehicle and the driving status of the registered owner, i.e., whether the car is registered, stolen, and whether the registered owner is licensed. It does not appear, however, that the Legislature contemplated that Sections 3.3 and 3.4 would permit the random use of MDTs to secure "the personal information" of motorists by police officers who had no reason to suspect wrongdoing.

Traffic stop based on factual mistake is valid

A police stop based on a factual error by the police does not violate the Constitution if the police act reasonably, the 1st Circuit has ruled

The police stopped a vehicle. A mobile data terminal (MDT) in their cruiser indicated that the owner of the car had a suspended license. As the defendant exited the car, the police saw a gun. They later discovered drugs as well. One of the officers subsequently noticed a separate MDT screen indicating that driver's license was in full force.

The defendant moved to suppress the evidence.

But the court held that the stop was predicated on an objectively reasonable suspicion. "Whether or not the defendant was driving with a suspended license," the court said, "the fact that the officers, in line with the guidance they had received for interpreting the MDT screens, reasonably believed that his license was suspended adequately grounded their initiation of the stop."

The fact that the defendant's license was not suspended at the time of the stop - a fact that the government conceded for purposes of the suppression motion - did not alter the court's conclusion that the officers acted justifiably.

[tgace]

Woe to those who've reported their cars stolen in the City of Buffalo, only to have them recovered later. BPD is notorious for its failure to remove recovered vehicles from the stolen vehicle database. Once the license plate reader "hits" on a stolen car, you're looking at the distinct possibility of getting dragged out of your own car at gunpoint by an over-excited suburban cop. Not an attractive prospect...

That...however....is a fact. Buffalo needs to do something with their record keeping. Im surprised they havent been sued over this.

[tgace]

Local Celebrity Placed in Handcuffs for Failing to Pay Parking Tickets

BUFFALO, NY (2007-09-10) You might want to attend to those unpaid parking tickets stuffed in your car glove box. A woman driving in Cheektowaga was arrested, handcuffed and thrown in jail for a registration suspension resulting from five unpaid parking tickets.

Loraine O'Donnell's crime was uncovered by new technology that allows police to read license plates and instantly find out the car's registration history. The local actress and TV personality says she did know about the tickets. (5 unpaid parking tickets BTW) But she was stunned to find out that her registration was suspended. And even more stunned to land in jail.

Cheektowaga Police Chief Christine Ziemba says a suspension is a Class A misdemeanor. And she says the officers responded according to procedure.

Ziemba says, so far, they have only one police car equipped with the new digital scanner. But she says they are eager to add more as money becomes available.

And you'll want to pay your parking tickets in other towns, too. Ziembra says other police departments are also investing in the technology.

[ChaneysGotaGun]

Who the hell is Lorraine O'Donnell? Was she thinking that the 5 unpaid parking tickets would go away on their own?
Typical elitist, arrogant hollywood type.

[tgace]

Local channel 7 media "celeb". Just fired from 7 due to their money trouble actually.