SURELY these cops can be totally trusted to not use this when they see an attractive woman they want to follow around, or a vulnerable minority they want to harass.
This seems harder to abuse than the regular GPS trackers they've had for a long time. The dart probably makes a loud noise when it hits the car and might damage the paint. If they're harassing someone wouldn't they rather quietly stick a tracker to the bottom of a car where it wouldn't be noticed?
Abuse of technology is not the fault of the technology itself. You didn't blame the gun for misuse of guns by the police do you? IMHO, this tech is better than the government having EVERY car GPS tracked
You don't blame the tool, you blame either the individual or the policies. Unfortunately, in US police, the individuals tend to be the failed marine dictator wannabees, who the thanks to lacks policies get a near carte blanche to abuse those tools like there is no tomorrow.
Same goes for gun policies in general, they're so dumb that you have near daily mass shootings there, causing loads of individuals to wonder how this can possibly happen and claim that there is nothing anyone safe god himself can do about the situation.
It illegal to track someone like that without a warrant. Instead, they can use the easily accessible legal privately owned ALPR system to see their habits.
Uhhh it does sound a bit far fetched to think they'll start shooting these darts at random people? I don't think it's a very discreet process. Something that could happen but I don't foresee this becoming a common thing
Article: Police are doing a better job, here's how.
Most of Lemmy: Nuh uh they're gonna use it to abolish the thirteenth amendment and stalk cute girls.
I'm begging you to shut the fuck up. Every whisper of cop news has some dipshit with a comment like this. We get it, you don't like police, go harass Facebook boomers about it.
I'm my county a high percentage of cars have GPS trackers fitted already - by the owner - because of the high vehicle theft rate.
I imagine if that police here just have to call up the tracking company to achieve the same result - something to think about actually (I don't have one, my car isn't worth much)
The problem in the US is that the cars are stolen and just get ditched immediately after any interaction with the cops. This helps them find the car, not catch the criminals. Obviously high speed pursuits are even worse, but this doesn't really solve the problem.
What they really need are payloads which can electronically fingerprint the occupant's phones and smart watches and shit.