Your car may be impounded - as a witness!

 

I was taken aback to read about a new tactic being employed by some California jurisdictions.

In Oakland and beyond, police called to crime scenes are increasingly looking for more than shell casings and fingerprints. They’re scanning for Teslas parked nearby, hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And, the Chronicle has found, they’re even resorting to obtaining warrants to tow the cars to ensure they don’t lose the video.

The trend offers a window into how mass surveillance — the expansion of cameras as well as license-plate scanners, security doorbells and precise cellphone tracking — is changing crime-fighting. While few cars have camera systems similar to Teslas, that could change rapidly, especially as the technology in vehicles continues to improve. 

“We have all these mobile video devices floating around,” said Sgt. Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association.

Therriault said he and other officers now frequently seek video from bystander Teslas, and usually get the owners’ consent to download it without having to serve a warrant. Still, he said, tows are sometimes necessary, if police can’t locate a Tesla owner and need the video “to pursue all leads.”

“It’s the most drastic thing you could do,” he acknowledged.

In at least three instances in July and August, Oakland police sought to tow a Tesla into evidence to obtain — via a second court order — its stored video. Officers cited the cars’ “Sentry Mode” feature, a system of cameras and sensors that records noise and movement around the vehicle when it is empty and locked, storing it in a USB drive in the glove box.

There's more at the link.

At present the "sentry mode" feature appears to be limited to Tesla autos - but I'm sure other manufacturers are working on including something like it into their high-end vehicles.  That means those brands will also be targeted by police as potential treasure-troves of evidence, if they're parked anywhere near a crime scene.

I'll certainly be very unhappy indeed if I come looking for my vehicle, only to find it's been towed by a police department due to potential evidence that it may contain.  They won't be certain the evidence is there - how can they be, when they haven't yet looked for it? - but that won't stop them glomming onto the car and preventing me from using it.  There's more.  What if they use their possession of the vehicle to go on a "fishing expedition", inspecting all my belongings and possessions and deciding whether they have any problem with any of them?  What if I have ammunition, or liquor, or other expensive products in the load compartment (entirely legally, of course, being shopping I haven't yet unloaded or something like that)?  How can I be sure I'll get them back?  (If you say I should automatically trust police not to appropriate them, you're living in a dream world.  Many cops won't - but a lot of cops will.)

I can see all sorts of negatives here for the vehicle owner - but that doesn't seem to bother the police who are impounding their wheels.

Peter