Town of Big Brother welcomes you

[BunsenBurner]

<p>Smile for the camera as you enter this posh neighborhood (and your license plate number gets entered into a database):</p>

<p>

City signs have a unique way of greeting people. In Issaquah, for instance, motorists are told they’re entering “a special place where people care.” For years, Bothell invited people to stay “for a day or a lifetime.”</p>

<p>In Medina, a new sign bears this warning: “You Are Entering a 24 Hour Video Surveillance Area.”</p>

<p>Cameras have recently been installed at intersections to monitor every vehicle coming into the city.</p>

<p>Under the “automatic license plate recognition” project, once a car enters Medina, a camera captures its license-plate number. Within seconds, the number is run through a database.</p>

<p>If a hit comes up for a felony — say, the vehicle was reported stolen or is being driven by a homicide suspect — the information is transmitted instantaneously to police, who can “leap into action,” said Police Chief Jeffrey Chen.</p>

<p>“These cameras provide us with intelligence,” Chen said. “It gets us in front of criminals. I don’t like to be on a level playing field with criminals.”</p>

<p>He declined to give the number and location of all the cameras.

</p>

<p>Read on here:</p>

<p>[Cameras</a> keep track of all cars entering Medina | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009873854_medina16m.html]Cameras”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009873854_medina16m.html)</p>

<p>The article concludes with this statement:</p>

<p>

Medina City Council members say the cameras aren’t about preserving a gated-community atmosphere.</p>

<p>“We’re not elitist at all,” Councilmember Robert Rudolph said. “There is a mix of people in Medina of all economic strata. What we’re doing here is protecting our citizenry.”

</p>

<p>All economic starta? Yeah, right:

Medina facts</p>

<p>Population (2009 estimate): 3,169
Median age: 45
Average household income: $222,290

</p>

<p>Highway 520 runs through Medina. Are they taking my picture as well as I head for the University on the other side of the lake?</p>

[barrons]

<p>I have no problem with it. Why should criminals get the upper hand? Prevention is FAR better than cleaning up after a crime which does nobody much good.
Every cop behind you is probably running your plate when he feels like it. Most of them run 100’s per day. Standard practice.</p>

[spideygirl]

<p>Probably has nothing to do with the fact that Bill Gates lives in Medina.</p>

[barrons]

<p>Also Steve Ballmer and many others. Plus some normal people who bought in early.</p>

[NewHope33]

<p>I’m unclear on how this is different from:
(a) putting a photograph or fingerprint on Drivers Licenses; or
(b) having surveillance cameras at airports;</p>

[somemom]

<p>The only theft from an auto our family has ever experienced happened in Medina, maybe they have a problem there?</p>

[dadx]

<p>Sounds pretty sophisticated compared to dragging strangers out of their cars and whupping up on them. Where I am, we just call the police on people who don’t look like they belong here. This is much more cost efficient. </p>

<p>I wonder if they could work up a deal for sponsorship with Geico to defray the cost. It’d be cool for that music to start playing from speakers installed at the border when you entered town.</p>

[LakeWashington]

<p>Just before the place became a toney enclave of the mega rich, years ago I was invited to a picnic in Medina. Lost my way momentarily driving around looking for the boss’s house. Very few gated homes or fences around then. And I didn’t see a cop that entire day. A few years later I applied for a job (a rather nice one) with the City of Medina governent (city hall was about as big as my parents’ one-car driveway, however). While the lakefront beach behind city hall seemed to be open to anyone, as I drove away I noticed a couple of new McMansions being erected, several yards from the curb and complete with rather imposing stone or concrete walls encircling the property. Guess I couldn’t go joy-riding or job searching today without a suspicious glance from neighbors and the local constabulary.</p>