I could have sworn that 1984 was 23 years ago but apparently it is just right around the corner.

The Daily News reported yesterday that a camera in lower Manhattan has been secretly recording license plates in a test of the planned “Ring of Steel” surveillance system.

The plates are compared against a database so the NYPD can immediately know when a suspicious car or truck is in the area. London has such a system in place in its financial district.

How can you tell if a vehicle is suspicious from it’s license plate? Well I would imagine you would cross reference with a DOT database to find the name of the owner of the vehicle. How do you know if that person is suspicious? Well you would probably cross reference to one of the several criminal record databases kept by various agencies. So now the NYPD will know when anyone convicted of DUI, drug possesion or any other crime drives past one of their fancy cameras. Bloomberg had this to say:

As for privacy concerns, he said, “You’ve already given that away when you buy a car and register it and put a license plate on the back, which is basically putting your name on the back of the car.”

It if is truly “putting your name on the back of the car” then find me one person on the street that can guess my name and figure out that I got a DUI 5 years ago just by looking at my license plate.

I can’t wait until the day that every move I make in a public place is recorded and stored somewhere by the government. Sounds like the American dream to me. Is it still the freedom to travel if they always know where you are? Mayor Bloomberg had a great quote for the folks like me who are opposed to blanketing our cities with surveillence cameras.

Mayor Bloomberg has a message for New Yorkers who don’t like surveillance cameras: Get real.

“It’s just ridiculous people who object to using technology,” the mayor said

Guess I am just fucking ridiculous.

Original Story: NY Daily News