• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Thursday, May 22, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home Privacy

Homeland Security Launching New High-Tech Citizen-Tracking Program

by Off The Grid News Staff
in Privacy
Print Print
DHS homeland security license plate tracking

Image source: Wired.com

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article
DHS homeland security license plate tracking
Image source: Wired.com

A national license plate recognition database apparently will soon become a reality in the United States, thanks to a Department of Homeland Security initiative.

Once the system is activated, personal information will be shared with law enforcement and governmental agencies on demand, allowing officials to know where someone has travelled.

It also will allow DHS agents to grab photos of a license plate with their smartphone and upload it into a government database, which will reportedly include “target vehicles” and “hot list” categories – all in the name of national security.

An official document uploaded to the Federal Business Opportunities website revealed the shocking details involved with the implementation of the national license plate recognition database. According to the government text, the DHS database program will track license plate numbers that either pass by cameras or are “voluntarily” entered into the system via a variety of different sources. The access points include law enforcement control systems and asset recovery specialists. The goal of the program is to “help locate criminal aliens and absconders.”

License plate readers themselves have been the subject of much discussion by civil liberties groups, as Off The Grid News reported. The readers are high-speed cameras and go largely unnoticed but can be found alongside roads, bridges and overpasses, in small towns and big cities alike. They’re also mounted on some police cars. The scanners were the subject of a 2013 report by the ACLU, “You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used To Record Americans’ Movements.”

One 2011 survey by a police research organization found that nearly three-quarter of police agencies used license plate readers, the ACLU said in its 34-page report. That same survey also found that 85 percent of agencies said they planned on increasing their use of the readers in the next five years.

Revisit the counsel of great men and learn how to reclaim the quality of government we once enjoyed.

Homeland Security wants to put all that information into one database.

“The database should track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system from a variety of sources … and uploaded to share with law enforcement,” the DHS document states. “… Officers should be able to query the NLPR database with license plate numbers … to determine where and when the vehicle has traveled.”

The DHS document does not say specifically how long the data will be kept – only that it will be in the system for “months.”

National license plate recognition systems in countries like the United Kingdom are already being used to monitor citizens attending political protests. One such protestor was added to the hot list after taking part in an anti-war protest. The man was questioned by police officer under anti-terror laws after authorities learned his name and address from the license plate scan. Critics of the license plate tracking system in Australia have deemed the systems a Pandora’s box for “abuse of power, mistakes, and illegal disclosure.”

An excerpt from a National Department of Justice report about the license plate tracking system reads:

[License plate tracking] technology is a significant tool in the arsenal of law enforcement and public safety agencies. Realizing the core business values that ALPR promise, however, can only be achieved through proper planning, implementation, training, deployment, use, and management of the technology and the information it provides. Like all tools and technologies available to law enforcement, ALPR must also be carefully managed. Policies must be developed and strictly enforced to ensure the quality of the data, the security of the system, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and the privacy of information gathered.

The ACLU has warned that license plate readers can have a chilling effect on free speech. That point was mirrored in a 2009 report by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which noted that citizens “are already compelled to disclose a great deal” about their lives.

By using licenses plate readers, the chiefs of police report said, individuals might “become more cautious in the exercise of their protected rights of expression, protest, association, and political participation because they consider themselves under constant surveillance.”

Story continues below video

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit made a similar argument in a 2009 ruling. In that decision, which declared warrantless GPS tracking by police unconstitutional, the court said that by following citizen’s travel patterns, police can determine a lot about a person.

“A person who knows all of another’s travels can deduce whether he is a weekly church goer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts,” the court said.

In 2005, New York City police used license plate readers to record every car parked outside specific mosques, the Associated Press reported.

“Police departments in other parts of the country could easily do the same thing to Tea Party groups, anti-abortion protesters, or the political opposition of a sheriff running for re-election,” the ACLU report said.

The ACLU  concluded: “In our society, it is a core principle that the government does not invade people’s privacy and collect information about citizens’ innocent activities just in case they do something wrong. Clear regulations must be put in place to keep the government from tracking our movements on a massive scale.”

We all want to thwart terrorism and keep our loved ones safe, but as Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

What do you think of the nationwide license plate tracking system?

Sign up for Off The Grid News’ weekly email and stay informed about the issues important to you

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

Neuralink’s Dangerous New Trademark Filings

Neuralink’s Dangerous New Trademark Filings

by Bill Heid

The Dark Side of Neural Implants… Power… Privacy… and Control? From an observer’s standpoint, Neuralink’s newly filed trademarks signal an...

When Powerful Machines Are Watching: Privacy Threats and Your Best Defenses in an Automated World

When Powerful Machines Are Watching: Privacy Threats and Your Best Defenses in an Automated World

by Bill Heid

Between Innovation and Intrusion: Safeguarding Privacy in the Age of AI Artificial intelligence is evolving at a breathtaking pace, revolutionizing...

Unraveling the Chemical Complexity of Pine Needles

Safeguarding Your Children’s Privacy in a “Connected” Christmas

by Bill Heid

Are your child’s experiences being sent to massive data centers? Increasingly, these special surprises include advanced technology… toys that respond...

Next Post
cold weather vegetable gardening pots

3 Vegetables You Can Grow All Winter ... Even Without A Garden

Please login to join discussion

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

15 Ways To Protect Your Off-Grid Home From Wildfires

15 Proven Ways To Protect Your Off-Grid Home From Wildfires

Yes, The Election Can Be Hacked – And The Result Would Be Catastrophic

Yes, The Election Can Be Hacked – And The Result Would Be Catastrophic

Study: Multivitamins, Other Common Supplements Have No Health Benefits

Study: Multivitamins, Other Common Supplements Have No Health Benefits

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.