Texas Transportation Officials Secretly Videotape Motorists
According to the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) secretly videotaped the license plates of motorists driving on Interstate 35 as part of a traffic study. The cameras that snapped photos of license plates were tucked inside orange construction barrels. Drivers who were photographed were then sent a survey asking them where they had been going and how many people live at their residence.
The cameras were placed at 21 locations Sept. 12-13 along a 450-mile stretch of Interstate 35 and nearby highways – from north of Laredo to north of Dallas. This invasion of privacy was not disclosed to motorists travelling on the interstate. TxDOT justified the study as necessary for transportation planning and mentioned that they will continue to conduct similar studies in the future.
TxDOT says that they weren’t trying to be sneaky, but it certainly seems like they could have devised a traffic study that didn’t require personal information to be collected without consent.
Do you think TxDOT’s invasion of motorist’s privacy was warranted? Add your comments to this post.
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It’s a better system than when they hold up traffic and hand out surveys.
Usually it takes ten minutes to get across the bridge in my city. Last summer, it took me 30 minutes just to get to the bridge, on a hot day with no A/C.
I was angry when I got to the bridge and found an intern with the DOT stopping vehicles and handing out surveys asking why we needed to cross the bridge. I threw it back in his face and yelled at him about slowing down traffic.
Dave S. comment is what is wrong with America. It is thinking like his that has wiped countless civil liberties away from Americans. That ignorant thinking is why the USA is now pretty much a fascist state. So keep on thinking like that and when the governments come snooping into your windows at home and start regulating what you can and cannot do, you will then realize it was this passive and or lazy thinking that got you what you have.
Another example of more goverment in our lives than most of us would care for.
The average person would be shocked to know how often the LEIN system is abused and how many of them have been run without their knowledge. Cops routinely run plates randomly as they’re driving on patrol looking for warrents and such. Do you have a neighbor who is a cop? You might find that he’s done a little spying on his neighbors. Are you an attractive woman? Some cop may have been curious where you live. A Michigan newspaper recently did an investigation of these abuses and found them to be rather extensive.
The cameras did need to be hidden to prevent some citizen from liberating them.
And the survey sounds like the legislators were trying to improve the roadways and looking for the best place to spend the money.
As far as consent, that’s given when you get the license and use a vehicle on public roads. Don’t like it? Build your own road and drive on that.
This really doesn’t sound right. IF this was supposed to be used for survey purposes, then it didn’t need to be hidden. Why not let the motorists know was going on and what to expect prior to taking the pictures? What, you didn’t think they would be mad after the fact?
Mine was one of the vehicles photographed on 9/12/07 on 45 between Dallas and Houston before they revealed this in the paper. I then received a questionaire, that I blew off because I saw it was from the DOT and didn’t really even read it. Then my husband told me when the story came out that he had read it and that that was what it was…I had already thrown it away.
I do think it is sneaky and underhanded, and I understand thousands of vehicles were photographed. Why hide it on the backside of a constuction barrel? What next??
As I understand privacy, if one ventures out in public, it is not illegal to photograph that person. However, when a government agency goes snooping as to who is using the road, that is another matter all together. In this case it is a wild stretch of the imagination as to what value answers to the above questions would be to the department of transportation.
This is another reason individuals should not use their home address when registering their vehicles or obtaining a driving license. I never did it because of my concern for someone breaking into my car and having access to my home through my garage door opener or me through the information provided on my license.
Yea it is an invasion of privacy.
Though there are people who feel that if you are on a public street you are fair game. I’am not one of them. When you start letting government monitor your movements without reasonable cause, you start down a very slippery slope.
It is one of the concerns I have with ITS, the fact that it could be abused as well.