Liberty Minute April 10 2014

Sheriff's deputies in Kootenai County, Idaho detained a teenager from Arizona at a rest stop on suspicion of being a runaway. The girl managed to slip free of her handcuffs and commandeer the vehicle, leading police on a brief chase before being stopped in a dead-end road and being taken into custody once again.

The most interesting ? and ominous ? aspect of this story is the way the girl was identified by the officers: According to Lt. Mike McFarland of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, a license plate reader along Interstate 90 identified a plate that was ?associated? with two juveniles from Chandler, Arizona who had gone missing.

Automatic License Plate Recognition systems are widely in use by police nation-wide. These passive devices, which are tied in to comprehensive databases, routinely scan the license plates of every car they encounter, and produce detailed information about people connected to the vehicles. Motorola, which manufactures one such system, boasts that they are a ?force multiplier that helps generate revenue, enhance officer safety, and improve intelligence capabilities.?

They also accelerate our country's already-rapid descent into a surveillance society.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.