I now know I am OFFICIALLY on some sort of watchlist! Yippee!

The list is supposedly not exhaustive, but I recommend everyone to search your plate to see if you’ve been tracked. I worry for the safety of the women who have been searched more than 50 times by the same user.

  • kibblebits@quokk.au
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    2 months ago

    Hey everyone, go put your plate into this system. It’s totally not a scam to collect license plates that aren’t any ready on the list.

    • iluvlamp37@lemmy.zipOP
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      2 months ago

      Cops obviously could find your license plate number if they want to, the DMV is a state agency who’s whole point is literally keeping track of stuff like that

    • veryblandusername@fedinsfw.app
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      2 months ago

      You do realize that license plates are government issued plates attached to your identity and that they keep lists of those plates…right?

      Because it would be incredibly silly if you thought otherwise.

            • iluvlamp37@lemmy.zipOP
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              2 months ago

              How would a company knowing your license plate number help with that. I don’t want them to have it (or anything else), but I legitimately cannot think of a use case

          • 🇨🇦GreenBeard🇨🇦@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            If you think the government is the only organization using your data against you friend, you’re living in a different era. Insurance companies, banks, ad farms, private security, AI tech giants, etc., etc., ad nauseum are all using your public and private profile to shape every second of every day. Testing your limits, tracking your movements, mapping your relationships, your buying patterns, and making you dance like a puppet for their entertainment.

            The government is the least scary of the groups shaping your world, because at least there’s hypothetically an accountability mechanism in the democratic process. Public, private, it really makes little difference, if you trust any of them without question, you’re playing yourself

    • seathru@quokk.au
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      2 months ago

      I punched in plates from the parking lot to see if anything good came up. Sorry to get you added to a list, randos.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Surely there are already databases containing all the license plates that have been issued. The useful thing is tracking where people go. So what would such a scam achieve?

      • Dultas@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yeah the license plates are issued by the government. Do people not think there is a database already.

        • Zephorah@discuss.online
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          2 months ago

          It’s the data point for tracking movement. Learning routines. You don’t think data centers are just there for Claude and Grok, do you?

          For example, like saying Dultas goes from their house to a location near X 4 days a week, at this time, rarely varying, in a 2001 Toyota RAV4. Dultas shops at X grocery on Thursdays after leaving work. Dultas is also seen pulling into the parking lot of a strip that holds X businesses. Based on other data, the probability he’s at the gaming store X every other Saturday for several hours is. Given Dultas’ shopping data and store data in that lot, he’s probably part of one of the dungeons and dragons groups using space in that shop. Dultas broke pattern and was seen near the ICE protest on Aigust X-X while his cell phone remained at his home location. Dultas’ shopping data shows he purchased 2 burner phones from Walmart on August X.

          Like that.

          I’m making stuff up on the fly and it still reads as creepy and dystopian. It’s not the info so much as the context it provides as relates to you.

          • Dultas@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            You obviously didn’t read the original comment that this discussion was about. It was about entering your own license plate into the lookup database to see if it was being tracked. Which none of your post has any relevance to.

  • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Now you only need to find a few high profile GOP members going to see young women (or men, actually…) their wives never heard of, and Flock will be severely restricted within one week.

  • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I am honestly impressed with USA Today for the first time in my life. Flock is fucked if these milquetoast bitches are with us.

    • taiyang@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What next, Teen Vogue or Buzzfeed?

      (No but seriously I love when these places do hard hitting shit out of the blue, although it hasn’t ended well in both cases).

      • iluvlamp37@lemmy.zipOP
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        2 months ago

        TMZ has been holding DC’s feet to the fire 100X more than any of the legacy media outlets this administration, too

        • taiyang@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Oh yeah, how could I forget TMZ. It’s so fucking backwards in 2026.

          Locally, one of the most insane ones is food blogger LA Taco getting into ICE reporting and interviewing. Obviously when legacy media fails, people still try to step up.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    Holy shit one officer in my town has 309 searches on one plate.

    He(?) has the top number of searches in total, and (practically) the only person to search for the top four plates in my town. The rest have like 1-2 searches from other officers in the same or adjacent town.

    Wtf is so special about these 4 plates?

    We only have two cameras in my town (afaik), and they are on the highway on ramps.

    • crank0271@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Seems worthy of contacting the reporter’s mentioned on the site:

      What if I’m in these records?

      If your plate has been searched frequently or you recognize an officer frequently searching the same plate, we want to hear from you.

      Contact reporters Austin Fast and Kenny Jacoby.

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        If they have the database that’s a simple query to execute against it.

        Don’t tell me USA today actually reads at the level they write at? Jeez.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      2 months ago

      Is he like the desk guy the others call to have him check plates? Only somewhat reasonable explanation I can think of. Not that there’s any reasonable explanation for these things to exist in the first place.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        And somebody called him 309 times on the same plate?

        That’s once every workday for over an entire year. It’s nuts. Stalker-level behavior.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I think it would be a huge breach of privacy and it shouldnt exist but the one scenario that people might argue this is fine if it was like a pariole officer.

          Like if someone has conditions stating they can only go to work and such, so the officer checks to see if he was breaking his parole the day before.

          Once again, I don’t think it should exist… But I know a lot of people who would say that is for the betterment of society.

    • daannii@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Ex gf or wife or a chick who turned him down. Or a trans woman he is obsessed with.

    • Zephorah@discuss.online
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      2 months ago

      He’s divorced and those are his Xwife, her new boyfriend, and his two kids.

      Maybe. But rolling the dice, that’s my 7.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        I contacted the police oversight committee. They report to the Governor and AG.

  • Lasherz@lemmy.worldM
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    2 months ago

    Man, searching for words like “crime” or “theft” really helps paint a picture of how fucking stupid cops are in this country

    • Dhs92@piefed.social
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      2 months ago

      Cops in my area seem to use “MADGE”, “MADGE1”, “HEHEHE”, “HEHEH”, and more

  • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    My plate hasn’t been searched (it’s not in this list at least), but without outing exactly where I live I’ll just say my county is among the worst in the country for searches. I.e. We’ve done lots of searches.

  • Tooks@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    Frederick Co VA top user has their information “redacted.” Must be targeting minors (16-17 yr olds)

  • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    Can’t tell. The city redacted all of the plates and usually leaves the reason blank. They have been getting called out for their willful disregard for accountability in other areas too, not that it does anything.

    The county redacted 85% of the searches, which probably tracks with them doing legitimate work 20% of the time.

    The goombas at the city airport spent the first year on it before suddenly realizing they could hide it. Looks like most of them were probably mostly professional and a couple were stalking.

        • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Sure. So is your comment.

          Now. What do you think anyone would accomplish with that data point? Because USA Today would have possession of the data point of a presumably-legit tag number being entered into this website.

          Companies do collect data to sell constantly, but I’m just having a hard time trying to make this one work. Like, not everything is a fucking conspiracy, man. Not everything is a bot. Not everything is an ad.

          People get distracted from the real problems by going on and on and on constantly how every single thing is a threat and dangerous.

          And yet… those same people will post public comments that can be collected and sold.

          Sure, sometimes that happens. But USA Today setting this up and collecting data to sell just doesn’t pass the laugh test.

          It’s dumb.

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      It’s adds you to the “interested to know if law enforcement has any interest in them USA Today Honeypot 2026” database, which probably marks your file as antifa or something

    • turtlesareneat@piefed.ca
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      2 months ago

      USA Today isn’t exactly top notch news but what would they have to gain from feeding search data to the government? People on both sides of the aisle are pissed right now, hence the searchable database to begin with. Lots of women checking to see if their exes have been stalking them. This wouldn’t be any kind of useful correlation to want the data on.