Electronic Toll Records Help Solve Crime

AP ^ | December 11, 2003 | MATT APUZZO

[sarcasm]

BALTIMORE -- When Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna's sedan cruised through a toll booth the night he was killed, his E-ZPass card automatically billed him. More importantly, it left an electronic record of his travels for police investigating the crime.

Millions of drivers now use electronic toll systems to pay for tolls without digging out cash, and investigators are increasingly using the electronic record they create as a crime fighting tool.

The New York Thruway System has received 128 subpoenas from investigators since 1998, and has turned over records in response to 61 of them, said Terry O'Brien, a spokesman for the thruway system.

The thruway system has issued electronic cards for use in 5.1 million vehicles, so the number of records subpoenaed is a small percentage. But experts predict the records will increasingly find their way into both criminal and civil cases.

In Illinois, a man reviewed his wife's electronic toll records during a custody dispute, and divorce attorneys say they see potential for such records in the future.

"Whereabouts can be very important, especially in a custody case where somebody says, 'I'm always around. I can take care of this child,'" said Barbara Ellen Handschu, a New York divorce attorney.

[Libertina]

I don't agree that this will outweight the loss of our privacy. But this is how our liberties are slowly taken... "for our own good."

[At _War_With_Liberals]

And his website history was made public within days. Scary stuff.

[Alberta's Child]

The New York Thruway System has received 128 subpoenas from investigators since 1998, and has turned over records in response to 61 of them, said Terry O'Brien, a spokesman for the thruway system.

There was a disgraceful scandal in New York a few years ago that didn't receive nearly the media attention it should have. It turns out the New York City police were obtaining EZ-PASS records to help in hundreds of crime investigations, without ever having obtained a single subpoena to get them.

[Cultural Jihad]

No one is forcing anyone to subscribe to the convenience of an automated toll system.

[SubMareener]

This is one where you have to actually lay your liberty on the table and hand them the knife. You don't have to use the Speed Pass, you can pay cash. (Then they have to go through all the camera pictures to find you license plate. ;-)

[Paul_B]

All for the good as long as the system is in the hands of honorable men. But if not...

[CurlyDave]

Despite the headline I do not see where this invasion of privacy has actually "solved" the crime.

When (& if) the bad guy is caught it is time to expound on how the records solved the crime. That is if they are useful at all.

[coloradan]

No one reads you your rights when you sign up, either.

[ikka]

No one is forcing anyone to subscribe to the convenience of an automated toll system.

True enough. But they push it on you by raising the fees for cash customers and keeping it the same for EZpass: example, the Holland Tunnel.

[Cultural Jihad]

No one reads you your rights when you sign up, either.

Daddy Goobermint needs to inform his little ignorant children of their rights, eh?

[Cultural Jihad]

So people who want to pay a premium for their transparency can bring cash and line up. Again, no one is being forced to subscribe.

[freedomcrusader]

Just one more reason not to get an EZ-pass.

[Cultural Jihad]

Just one more reason not to get an EZ-pass.

Be sure to never use an ATM machine, or leave any fingerprints anywhere ever! (sheesh)

[freedomcrusader]

In post 12 you're just fine with folks paying cash for their transparency, then you insult me in #14 for doing just that.

Do you have such wide-ranging mood shifts often?

[Cultural Jihad]

Insult?! I was just helping you out.

[Libertina]

LOL Little by little we give it up. No reason not to make it as hard as possible for them ;)

[Iconoclast2]

If the information is available to all, liberty is preserved. Tyranny only comes from a monopoly over the information. Like the Foster autopsy photos, for example. What if American were the last country with an unregulated internet, where all this information was available all the time.

[Russian Sage]

All for the good as long as the system is in the hands of honorable men. But if not...

Is there any security in these passes? I have heard that there is not and anyone can obtain a reader.

[MediaMole]

Who needs a national ID?

Between EZ pass, Grocery cards, ATMs and facial recognition systems in security cameras anyone can be tracked 24-7 with enough effort.