License plate readers
As the previous police chief in Hanson, I agree with the Feb. 4 op-ed, “Public Security and Privateness Can Coexist.”
In 2018, when a vacant former pub on Route 58 in Hanson was set on fireplace, cops instantly started checking digicam footage of companies within the space. Earlier than the fireplace was even out, a close-by enterprise had offered the fireplace division with a video of a Jeep Wrangler and a suspicious occupant who entered the constructing.
Police had an awesome place to begin, a identified make and mannequin of a automobile, however no license plate might be decided from the video. Over the course of the following weeks, investigators checked cameras from properties and companies and ultimately acquired the Jeep’s plate, and its occupant was one among three charged with arson.
Now, nearly 10 years later, know-how is aiding officers investigating crimes and holding their communities protected in a lot sooner methods.
Instruments like license plate readers are crucial to permit officers to clear circumstances sooner and observe down criminals earlier than they act once more. Public privateness have to be revered and adherence to insurance policies stopping abuse of this know-how is important.
The truth is that nowadays you can not stroll right into a retail retailer, gasoline station, faculty, package deal retailer, or bar with out being monitored at the very least as soon as. You can not drive down your individual avenue and not using a neighbor’s safety digicam getting an image of you.
We want guardrails but additionally want this crucial public security instrument to maintain our communities safer.
Mike Miksch
Retired Hanson Police Chief
Local weather change
Trump can repeal insurance policies. However he can’t repeal science.
It doesn’t matter what the fossil-fuel-fueled administration says, carbon dioxide is a number one reason for local weather change, and local weather change is already taking lives, inflicting pressured migration, devastating agriculture, and operating up huge prices. The EPA’s “endangerment discovering” acknowledged that a part of defending our surroundings was limiting CO2 emissions. Trump can repeal all he needs, however that doesn’t change the info. It merely places all of us in danger: our well being, our property, our lives.
Susan Donaldson, MD
Northampton
Gov. Maura Healey
So the woes of this state are all President Trump’s fault, Gov. Healey? A lot for “the buck stops right here.” As an alternative all Healey does is level fingers at President Trump, figuring out that may play effectively to her liberal constituency, the vast majority of whom are with Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Kudos to State Sen. Ryan Fattman for attempting to carry the ft of our governor to the fireplace.
Peter Bochner
Wayland
