The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.

Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over — often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement’s radar.

Only solution is going to be to ban the automated license plate scanners; otherwise this is going to keep on happening.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    9 hours ago

    So free travel isn’t a thing anymore?

    Hmm. What other historical examples of this are there and how did that turn out?

  • MelonYellow@lemmy.caEnglish
    58·
    14 hours ago

    Federal agents observed that Schott had made an overnight trip from Houston to Carrizo Springs, Texas, and back, court records show. They knew he stayed overnight in a hotel about 80 miles (129 kilometers) from the U.S.-Mexico border. They knew that in the morning Schott met a female colleague there before they drove together to a business meeting.

    That’s all it takes to get pulled over and investigated for drug trafficking WTF. This is so wrong. Can’t even drive in your own damn country

    • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
      38·
      12 hours ago

      “The beautiful thing about the Texas Traffic Code is there’s thousands of things you can stop a vehicle for,” said Joel Babb, the sheriff’s deputy who stopped Schott’s car

      Fuck everything about Texas.

      • Dogyote@slrpnk.net
        8·
        9 hours ago

        Happened to me once outside San Angelo. Noticed the car behind turn their headlights off for a second, then they flipped their red and blues on. I was pulled over because my license plate lights were out, but I’m pretty sure they just wanted to see who was driving the shitty car with out of state plates through their town. No ticket, no warning, didn’t ask to search the car, just annoyingly nosey.

  • AreaKode@lemmy.world
    27·
    14 hours ago

    Why is “suspicious” quoted. Suspicious “travel patterns” == suspicious skin colors.

    • silence7@slrpnk.netOP
      23·
      14 hours ago

      Also any kind of activity other than merely going back and forth to work and suggests you might be socially connected

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    2·
    8 hours ago

    Yet another thing that’s straight out of dystopian fiction to the point that it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s where they got the idea.

    The plots of ALL such movies, shows, and books must be kept away from cops and billionaires, lest they inevitably find it inspirational and copy it.