No matter how sophisticated our technology becomes, we still struggle with the age-old question: who am I? Automatic License Plate Recognition cameras (ALPR) think they know who we are. But, according to the ACLU and the University of Iowa, studying traffic camera technology in 48 Iowa communities, they get it wrong about 10 percent of the time.
Iowa defenders of the lucrative speed camera system argue that, in addition to automatically issuing tickets, the devices protect the public, having recently identified a drive-by shooting suspect and helped unite an 84-year-old man with dementia with his family. But sometimes the ALPR gets it terribly wrong.
For example, instead of reading the license plate on a flatbed truck, the camera sometimes reads the plate on the car being carried so that the ticket charges the inoperable car with driving 80 miles-an-hour down the highway…in reverse!
The cameras sometimes can’t tell the difference between the license plate and a bumper sticker and ends up trying to send the ticket to “Ask me about my Schnauzer”. A woman in California got the vanity plate, “LUVSICK”. The problem was, a clothing store sold a popular license plate decoration of the same name. Many young drivers who bought it, eventually parked illegally or ran tolls so that the California woman was charged with hundreds of tickets from all over the country.
Some clever drivers go to great lengths to hide their identity from the speed cameras. One computer professional, known as “Doogie” thought he would outsmart the cameras with the vanity plate “NULL”. In computer code lingo, “null” means no data. But instead of hiding his identity and making him immune from traffic tickets, the system charged him with every ticket officers had not yet completed, having filled in the blank with “null”. As a result, the tricky Mr. Null received parking tickets totaling over $12,000.
Also in California, a camera sent a ticket to a driver who ran a red light, along with a clear photo of the suspect who looked a lot like Marilyn Monroe. Then the driver showed up in court in a suit and tie, clearly a man. It turns out he had been a drag performer on his way to a show. Since the man and the photo of the famous deceased actress didn’t match, the frustrated judge tossed out the charges and let him go.
A famous case in Ireland involved a dangerous driver identified as Prawo Jazdy, who had accumulated more than 50 separate traffic violations in several countries. Prawo Jazdy proved to be incredibly elusive, appearing in one location, then disappearing and popping up instantly in another location, each time with a different appearance. Eventually, it was discovered that “Prawo Jazdy” was not even a name. It was the Polish phrase for “driving license”, printed on the top right corner of every Polish license. This made Ireland’s most wanted reckless driver nothing but a bad translation.
Through no fault of the driver, sometimes, a blob of road mud stuck to a license plate is enough to defeat the high tech million-dollar ALPR system. Eventually, the speeding car will run through a puddle and all will become clear. Then no matter who he is, his name is mud.