Auto repossession specialists recovered 1.9 million cars in 2009, a jump of nearly 10% over the previous year. The increase is tied directly to the use of exotic technology used by police and repossession vehicles.
At the core... is a set of high-speed digital cameras mounted on the hood and trunk of a vehicle that snap pictures of license plates while passing other vehicles, even at 80 miles per hour. Photos of the plates (including the time the photo was taken and the car’s GPS coordinates) instantly pop up on a laptop computer inside the repo man’s vehicle. Optical character recognition software converts the plate numbers to text.
The process gets more technical: the plate numbers are checked against an encrypted database of delinquent cars, compiled from lenders and stored on the computer, which is refreshed continuously using a wireless link. In most cases, the license plates photographed are attached to cars with no payment problems. But when a plate on a wanted list is found, the computer screen displays further information, including the make and model, its vehicle identification number, or VIN, and the name of the lender. The data is used to confirm that the right car has been found — scofflaws sometimes swap license plates, for instance.
The plate-recognition systems are also used heavily by police. And the system resembles nothing so much as a "Big Brother"-ish system of the sort Orwell would have appreciated...
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