i came across this link and was kind of suprised at how devloped the technology is claimed to be. is it real and in use by actual law enforcement agencys? seems as if the potential for abuse is rather high.

www.att-tactical.com/PlateChek.html

My "high tech"  plate check system consists of reading the plate with the MK1 eyeball and using the finger/keyboard interface.

It's free too.

And for $30, it's easily defeated.

Photoblock

It might beat the cheaper systems, but the system designed and used by Hughes, now Raytheon,  is unbeatable.  Most use a less expensive system though.  They turned down my suggestion that Mavericks be tied into the system for use on light runners.

This was back in the days when converting military systems and companies  to civilian uses and products was a big push in the early 90's.  And no cheap ass solution would beat that system.

And even the cheap systems have the ability to kick out "unreadable" plates for viewing by a live body, and if that happens the old Mk1 Eyeball can read through most of the available coverings enough to correlate with car make model and year.

DOJ's Tech Beat had an article on these a couple months back. A couple of the bigger cities are using these, but mostly for parking scofflaws, and they are still pretty expensive.

I can see having something like this always "on" and tied into an MCT in 10-15 years. Your car will probably "alert" you that it just found a stolen car two blocks ahead and so on. Should be pretty cool. For now, most of us do it the old-fashioned way; one handed typing in the MCT at the stop light.