Police license plate scanner blockers.

[Marco Polo]

Anyone ever used one of these and had successful results? Basically it's an IR-absorbing plastic sheet that covers your license plate and prevents the PD's automatic license plate reader from seeing your digits. The scanners operate in the NIR band, apparently around 808nm, and at night you can see the scanner heads flickering that very deep, dim, cherry red.

As to why I want to get one, whenever one of those scans your plate - whether you are committing a violation or not - it logs the GPS location and the time and tags that to your personal identity. It's just one more indication of the rising police state; it's none of the authorities' business where you go, or at what time as long as you are a law-abiding citizen.

So, I want to get one for my car, but I want to make sure it actually works. Anyone tried them and have a recommendation? I don't trust the advertising pages to be truthful, any more than I trust the government to be.

 

[Sigurthr]

Why not flood your license plate area with high brightness 808nm light from LED arrays? Cheaper and more reliable; it'll just show up as a white spot on their cam.

Also, I doubt it would flag yourself for any trouble as it wouldn't be very visible like a plate cover would be.

 

[IsaacT]

I saw a white collar episode where they used IR LED's to mask their faces on a security camera. So cool but you got to make sure you don't flood your eyes with IR.

 

[trencheel303]

Wouldn't that mean they'd stop you every time they tried (and failed) to scan your plate?

Over here if the scan fails for whatever reason they pull you and interrogate you as to why you have "illegal plates". The police here do not like being " one upped".

 

[Sigurthr]

No idea to be honest, police up here don't even have radar guns, much less plate scanners.

 

[jimdt7]

Even though I don't own a car, I know that most of them have a lamp over the license plate...thus I'd say you put some high-brightness IR LED which will be invisible in case they stop you plus if you hook them up in series with the lamp the will turn on only at night!. :beer:

Jim

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Marco Polo]

"Failing to scan" would not be considered probable cause here in the US (at least not yet, but we are moving towards police-state dictatorship every day) thus the officer would have to run the plates manually, assuming he's able to do so while driving. He would have to radio dispatch and whatnot at that point.

The plate scanners are a severe violation of privacy because they effectively allow the state to spy on your travel habits by logging your location and time whenever they scan you. Being suspected of a violation or not has NOTHING to do with it - you are logged every time they scan your plate.

It ought to be a violation of the 4th amendment but alas courts don't agree, or else they have not been sufficiently challenged in court. I'm not OK with it and so I'm going to go out of my way to defeat these devices.

The IR led idea is a good one and would render the plate unreadable even in daylight. Maybe half a dozen to a dozen of 5-watt or thereabouts IR LED's would do the job.

 

[Sigurthr]

I should also note that for the 9 months of a year we have snow up here they don't even pull you over for having your plate totally unreadibly covered in snow. Mostly it is because the snow is so bad that if you clean it when you leave it's already covered by time you arrive anywhere.

 

[Marco Polo]

Yes, I know the plate can't be obscured, the IR blocking filter doesn't block visible light in any way. A human can read the plate just fine. I check my plate lights, tail lights, headlights, and everything else on my car on a regular basis to avoid any issues with equipment violations. I just don't have the time to be ticketed, and I certainly can't afford the ridiculous fines.

I said that "failing to scan" would not be probable cause, I didn't say anything about "obscuring my plate to make it unreadable" !

The automatic scanning technology is EXACTLY what I want to defeat. They log ALL plates and their locations and times regardless of whether the person is wanted or not. That is a violation of the 4th amendment and a serious invasion of privacy.

I am a law abiding citizen; I have no warrants out for me, my plates are current and my license is valid. I have no outstanding tickets. I don't engage in any illegal activity of any kind that I would want to hide. I simply DETEST the invasion of my privacy by this out-of-control police state. My location and travel habits are NONE of the government's business and I will deny them that information if at all possible.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

I said that "failing to scan" would not be probable cause

Legally that's true, but the reality of the situation is, cops often make up probable cause well after the fact, the better to dictate the narrative to justify the final charges.

There is a good documentary on youtube for example, from an ex cop/ex dea agent, where he drives around for a bit, and just points out things that he would have pulled people over for, given a much narrower scope of interest than your typical cop. Things he pulled people over for, some examples, low riding trunk. Long hair or un shaved for men. Sneezing. Any kind of stickers that show any kind of affiliation. Basically anything that stood out in any way.

For now it's not likely the system would flag your car if the license place is not read, but you can bet, if a cop actually notices, you'll get pulled over. I do like the idea though.