The Wired Rep Man

[alice wellintown]

The Wired Repo Man: He’s Not ‘As Seen on TV’By KEN BELSON
Published: February 25, 2010

As is the case with other surveillance technologies, automatic
license-plate recognition was originally developed for the military.
Mr. Alper and others said it was first used in Britain to track the
cars of suspected terrorists.

The technology soon spread.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/automobiles/28REPO.html?hpw