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A woman drives with both hands on the wheel. Her phone sits face-down on her lap. No officer pulls her over. No lights flash. Weeks later, a $1,251 ticket arrives in the mail. The evidence: a single frame from a Camera surveillance app. The charge: phone use while driving.

Automated camera companies market their devices as automated license plate readers — tools for catching stolen cars, flagging warrants, and aiding serious investigations.

Sold as a Crime Tool. Used as a Fine Machine.

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[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago

It doesn't violate constitutional rights as long as whatever the camera can detect/see would be the same as a police officer. If it has a license plate reader and face detection or whatever it's unconstitutional because an officer probably wouldn't have been able to issue a ticket if it were a person there instead of a camera. If it's something like an obviously missing seatbelt or phone use seen through the window at a reasonable angle it's constitutional.

I don't understand the "face an accuser in court" argument. It's a photo. You argue about the photo with the judge. The photo is your accuser.

[-] Rekonok@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago

No

The company sending the letter is the acccuser.

They need to explain how they interpreted the photo

[-] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

Did you ever have a misunderstanding with someone that simply explaining it to each other cleared it up? How can a camera explain what it saw. The police officer wasn’t there and isn’t a witness. Also these cameras are not owned by the police. It’s a third party company that has a lease with them. So someone with no authority to make traffic stops is taking pictures of you and sending the bad stuff to police for money. Doesn’t that sound like a conflict of interest?

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
923 points (96.9% liked)

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