Google StreetView inspires copycat Smart ForTwo police patrol in UK
After revolutionizing search, advertising, and e-mail, Google is changing the way police in Greater Manchester keep track of motorists: Filming them a la StreetView. After having seen Google's StreetView car doing its Cylon sweep of everything, everywhere, the local authorities were apparently inspired to outfit Smart ForTwos with high-rise cameras to capture data. The cars will focus their views near "a high occurrence of 'driver distraction' collisions and where officers have regularly observed offenses being committed."
The police aren't trying to hide anything -- the ForTwos are evidently outfitted in official livery, and besides, there's that gigantic telephone pole of a camera mast sticking out of the roof as a less-than-subtle tipoff. What the police are hoping is that you won't be able to hide anything, either.
The surveiling Smart cars are only part of a pilot program for now, but you can bet that if they're effective, you've only seen the beginning of them.
Thanks, Google...
[Source: Daily Mail via CNET | Image: Manchester Evening News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
catgirlshyla 2:47PM (4/09/2009)
This is nothing new. Many UK Cop Outfits have CCTV/ANPR Vans.
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/police/dscd0973.jpg
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/police/p1150315.jpg
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SimbaDogg 4:20PM (4/09/2009)
well, what IS news to me...is that damn police cars across the pond are coming equipped with nice looking wheels. What are those, 15's...
i bet they keep em clean though.
catgirlshyla 12:50PM (4/10/2009)
You think thats bad, some UK Cop Outfits ride around in some sweet rides. For example, the Highways Agency folks that drive around in Land Rovers:
http://www.dailymotion.com/user/RIOTSQUAD/video/x8m1u0_dicing-with-death-1_people
And numerous outfits drive in Bimmers. CO19 and the Diplomatic Protection group of London's Metropolitain Police come to mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Co19.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_Protection_Group
Tang 2:50PM (4/09/2009)
If Google and Facebook worked together, they could probably do more identity theft than any group of humans ever could.
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Brian 2:57PM (4/09/2009)
I fail to see how parking a Smart car with police decals and a giant lamp post on the roof is going to help decrease driver distraction.
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Ken 3:19PM (4/09/2009)
They'll put a "Nothing to see here, don't be distracted" sticker on it of course!
Alex 2:58PM (4/09/2009)
Mr. Orwell was a little off one the date, but his predictions are coming all the more true.
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Alex 2:58PM (4/09/2009)
Mr. Orwell was a little off on the date, but his predictions are coming all the more true.
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Draaaainage! 3:31PM (4/09/2009)
I think somethings wrong with the acoustics here at Autoblog. I keep hearing echoes.
Ian 3:10PM (4/09/2009)
Wouldn't it be better to spend the time and money analyzing the traffic flow and making road and sign changes to make the areas safer?
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Bloke 3:28PM (4/09/2009)
This is done in conjunction with such schemes. For example, in many areas of the UK warning signs (triangular signage) are being replaced by LED versions which detect a car's motion and get brighter when a vehicle approaches them. Some areas are trialling LED cats eyes between road markings. Many areas also employ traffic-calming schemes around town and city centres.
spacegravity4me 3:38PM (4/09/2009)
^ bloke, I LOVE those ideas, I think those are the type of things that can do a lot of good and be the most interesting, not the whole surveillance thing. That's just crap. Crap in the mouth of society.
Ninjin 3:43PM (4/09/2009)
Presumably there will be a policeman driving this car. Will he be blind? I'm struggling to understand how a camera and a computer are actually better (or more cost effective) at policing than a human being with two eyes and a brain.
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UCJR 3:25PM (4/09/2009)
It's fairly simple... the camera footage can be analyzed later, with multiple tickets being issued from a single circuit of the car. One officer can only catch so many things, but when you can rewind things... lots more gets spooted.
Draaaainage! 3:33PM (4/09/2009)
I would hate to get spooted by the police!
Ninjin 3:44PM (4/09/2009)
UCJR: That's true, it would be more revenue, provided there are enough tickets to offset the cost of attaching a telegraph pole to a Smart car. But, it won't make anyone safer. The nice thing about a police officer handing out tickets is that he can make an unsafe driver pull over and drive safely. Getting a letter in the mail two weeks after you were driving like a lunatic doesn't seem like it would be as effective in that regard. So I guess that's what I was getting at.
spacegravity4me 3:36PM (4/09/2009)
that's gonna get broken off by someone who doesn't like it very quickly and easily too.
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rsfourever 4:36PM (4/09/2009)
yay police state!
.........
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GOT 11:45PM (4/09/2009)
I know. Funny how we all think that Google-Street-View (surveillance, which we all accept because it's "NEW") is cool when we can use it to see our own house, the neighbor's and our friend's. But then if law enforcement uses it, society is falling apart and how dare they.
I think it was Nikita Khrushchev (Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1953 - 1964) who said in a visit to the USA in a conversation with Ezra Benson (US Secretary of Agriculture 1953-1961) that communism wouldn't come to the USA with tanks and bombs but that the people would be beg for it, with arms wide open. People are all but begging for it now. It's like a novelty, there could be no harm...
Brad 6:04PM (4/09/2009)
Looks like it's missing it's key at the top to wind it up with.
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