I'm going to cross-post from another forum, where we had a similar discussion on ALPRs.
My reply was in response to how a town can use ALPRs to justify the layoffs of 2-3 parking personnel.
"Nope, the way you justify this is you don't pay for it.
The way it actually works is the manufacturer employs a team of grant writers, whose job is to know about any and all municipal, county, state, federal grants. In conjunction, with a team of lobbyists to influence the increased disbursement of funds to towns to help in the "war on terror". And the cherry on top, is the team that works with each state (or each regional purchasing authority) to get the manufacturer's products onto the approved list of law enforcement-related purchasing items.
The manufacturer then sells 2-5 systems to your town as a way of increasing revenue collection for the cost of $0 (see, grant writers?) plus annual maintenance cost. Your town sells it as a way to crack down on drug dealers and other undesirables. The manufacturer gets about $100K in revenue at this turn.
Then the manufacturer sells professional services to integrate the camera lookup system into your town's DMV, property tax, and criminal databases. So, you're not limited to just parking tickets.
Then the manufacturer sells the use of a certified company employee as an "expert witness" in case you need someone to testify to the accuracy of the system during a court proceeding (that is a result of their surveillance technology).
Then they sell the mapping/GIS software integration at a rate of $300/mile driven for cities, and ~$80/mile driven for highway patrol/state troopers.
I seriously wish I was joking about how the game is played. *
This is what happens when you base all of your municipal revenue on inflated real estate prices/assessments and the floor disappears from under you. You go scrambling for any sort of revenue you can get.
* = I've talked to some officers and detectives in my old town, and they state that they turn the system off when riding with it, because it generates so many hits that they cannot possibly respond to each individual one. My suspicion is that its both that, and the cost per mile driven."
And someone else's follow-up to my post:
"Thanks, you gave me the perfect lead-in to explain my comment.
A lot of these will receive "grant money" from the DHS with the stipulation that the culled data is fed to the DHS for their global database.
There was a PBS Frontline on this subject about a year ago."
I'm going to cross-post from another forum, where we had a similar discussion on ALPRs.
My reply was in response to how a town can use ALPRs to justify the layoffs of 2-3 parking personnel.
"Nope, the way you justify this is you don't pay for it.
The way it actually works is the manufacturer employs a team of grant writers, whose job is to know about any and all municipal, county, state, federal grants. In conjunction, with a team of lobbyists to influence the increased disbursement of funds to towns to help in the "war on terror". And the cherry on top, is the team that works with each state (or each regional purchasing authority) to get the manufacturer's products onto the approved list of law enforcement-related purchasing items.
The manufacturer then sells 2-5 systems to your town as a way of increasing revenue collection for the cost of $0 (see, grant writers?) plus annual maintenance cost. Your town sells it as a way to crack down on drug dealers and other undesirables. The manufacturer gets about $100K in revenue at this turn.
Then the manufacturer sells professional services to integrate the camera lookup system into your town's DMV, property tax, and criminal databases. So, you're not limited to just parking tickets.
Then the manufacturer sells the use of a certified company employee as an "expert witness" in case you need someone to testify to the accuracy of the system during a court proceeding (that is a result of their surveillance technology).
Then they sell the mapping/GIS software integration at a rate of $300/mile driven for cities, and ~$80/mile driven for highway patrol/state troopers.
I seriously wish I was joking about how the game is played. *
This is what happens when you base all of your municipal revenue on inflated real estate prices/assessments and the floor disappears from under you. You go scrambling for any sort of revenue you can get.
* = I've talked to some officers and detectives in my old town, and they state that they turn the system off when riding with it, because it generates so many hits that they cannot possibly respond to each individual one. My suspicion is that its both that, and the cost per mile driven."
And someone else's follow-up to my post:
"Thanks, you gave me the perfect lead-in to explain my comment.
A lot of these will receive "grant money" from the DHS with the stipulation that the culled data is fed to the DHS for their global database.
There was a PBS Frontline on this subject about a year ago."