Oklahoma is considering setting up about 200 cameras on roadways across the state as a new way to catch uninsured motorists.
The camera system, to be implemented by the Department of Public Safety, would randomly scan the bar code on Oklahoma tags, said Lt. George Brown, Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman.
“The purpose of this whole deal is to try to do something to protect people from uninsured motorists traveling the roadways every day,” Brown said.
Brown said troopers routinely write tickets for drivers failing to obey state insurance laws, and that the proposed camera system would serve as a supplement.
“It’s really common for them to see several of those tickets weekly through headquarters,” he said.
Brown said the proposed system is still in the works, as the Department of Public Safety is in the process of finding out whether the technology is possible to implement. The department is gathering information from possible vendors to see which one could provide the necessary equipment, and the vendor information requests close Dec. 23, he said.
Brown said he does not yet know the estimated cost of the system.
“The hope is that there’s a mechanism out there we would put in place to help identify uninsured motorists, especially in cases of collisions,” he said.
Brown said the system may include mailing the driver a citation or fine, although that is also still in the works.
Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, said he believes the initiative is an invasion of privacy and does not think the public would want to be filmed constantly.
Reynolds said the Department of Public Safety tried to include the initiative in a bill during last year’s legislative session, but that the state Legislature discarded the idea.
“I find it offensive they’re trying to implement it anyway even though the legislature has already rejected it,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the Department of Public Safety already has a good system in place to catch uninsured motorists, and that the new system would be nothing more than a way to raise revenue.
Brown declined to comment on the issue.
Brown said he is unaware if other states have implemented similar systems, but said the department has received calls from safety departments expressing interest in the program in other states, including Arizona.
Brown said once the Department of Public Safety finds out whether the system’s creation is possible, it will get a cost estimation, then figure out which citation or fining mechanism would be most feasible to implement.
“If there was a way that we could put a technology out there … that would identify uninsured motorists, we think it would help protect people from uninsured motorists,” Brown said.
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bigstinky 2 years, 5 months ago
Oklahoma needs to crack down on the uninsured motorists, especially for those of us who have to pay much higher premiums because of them!
TomElmore 2 years, 3 months ago
So this is what the camera/sensor array masts placed along the metro's limited access highways are supposed to be for? No chance at all that if they can track "uninsured motorists," they can track all the rest of us, as well?
Oklahomans have no alternative to automobiles and highways -- by clear complicity of our political leadership with the special interests who benefit by this lack of choice. So since we all must accept being herded onto the state's potholed roadways and shaky bridges, they figure we'll also have no choice in getting our daily behavior monitored?
By the way -- in this era of budgetary melt-down, who paid for all this undoubtedly expensive roadside telemetry? Isn't ODOT and the National Highway Trust Fund supposed to be "broke?"
Where did the funding come from? Who gave the authority for such technology to be funded and deployed? Did any elected official granted such authority by the people and the constitution explain in advance of the erection of these potentially intrusive machines what they were for and just how far into our lives they could look? Does the equipment already in place work -- or not? If so, who's using it to intrude into our personal business right now?
It wouldn't hurt Oklahomans -- even the young and naive -- to wise up at least a little. This is a very, very, very bad idea that will nearly inevitably come back to haunt all of us.