The Texas Department of Public Safety might as well be called the Texas Department of Public Invasiveness.
They’ve launched a plan to fingerprint every single person of driving age in the state, after which they will add the person’s prints to the criminal database.
Is it just me or is that a rather Dystopian plan?
Jon Cassidy of Watchdog.org writes:
The credit for breaking the news on those two items goes to consumer affairs columnist Dave Lieber of the Dallas Morning News, whose long-running “Watchdog” column often shows up in my Google Alerts, for obvious reasons.
As an old-school columnist, Lieber tends to keep his opinions subdued, and he doesn’t generally call people dishonest. But I have no problem with doing that, so I’d like to point out that the DPS spokesman he quotes at length is less than straightforward about his department’s legal authority.
Last month, Lieber broke the news that DPS had started collecting full sets of fingerprints on everyone who went in to renew their license.
Friday, he followed up with a story on DPS’ dubious legal authority to do so, and then posted lengthy quotations on the issue to his blog.
Lieber quotes an entire email from DPS spokesman Tom Vinger, who quotes Transportation Code Sec. 521.059 at length, including the key phrase, “The department shall establish an image verification system based on the following identifiers collected by the department: ….an applicant’s thumbprints or fingerprints.” (source)
So the gist of this is: if you don’t allow the “authorities” to take your prints and file them away in the event that you commit some heinous crime in the future, you won’t be issued a driver’s license in the state of Texas. This means you’d theoretically be unable to drive or get insurance, because you’d be unlicensed. If you can’t get insurance, it will be difficult to own a car. This, of course, could effect your livelihood, your ability to get your kids to school, and myriad other day-to-day issues. I’m a big fan of opting out, but this makes it a lot more difficult for the average Joe or Josephine to do so.
Doesn’t this sound like a pre-crime system, gathering evidence for the potential day in the future when they wish to use a person’s cataloged prints to identify them? At the very least, it is an invasion of personal privacy that is being enforced by hindering one’s ability to travel freely.
According to the laws on the books, it’s legal to take ONE print, but not a set of ten.
To get the full context, you’d have to go back to the original bill that was signed into law, and then look up the relevant section of law, which states that an application for a drivers’ license “must include: 1) the thumbprints of the applicant or, if thumbprints cannot be taken, the index fingerprints of the applicant.”
So that’s why the law mentions fingerprints – it’s index fingerprints, not a full set of 10 fingerprints. While the law mentions that those records can be used by law enforcement agencies investigating a crime, it doesn’t say anything about making them generally available in a criminal database.
According to Lieber, a political science professor at Texas Christian University named Donald W. Jackson, who has a new organization called the North Texas Civil Rights Project, is offering legal support if anybody wants to challenge this new policy in court. (source)
I bet a lot of Texans will have one particular fingerprint they’ll be happy to give – the middle one.
Hat tip to Kimo
I hope Texans take a stand. If one state allows it others will follow. Our rights are slowly and quitely be taken away from us. I too am for opting out but as your story points out that is hard to do in this instance. The new “trend” where I live is doctor’s offices taking pictures of their patients for their records….enough already!
“doctor’s offices taking pictures of their patients for their records”
That’s freaking, creepy!
Meanwhile, in the background: ‘Shall we call this big-ag depopulation?’
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/attention-roundup-damages-sperm/
I would walk out.
Wow, even in Texas. Here in NJ it feels you are fingerprinted for everything.
The state I am stuck in is awful. I was fingerprinted, all ten for both of my jobs. One was the entire hand(s). I could not keep the license/certificate if I did not.
When you go to see a doctor it is required to have a photo ID which usually means your license, that, by the way is taken in such a way (special smile or not, etc.,) that you are now bio-metrically measured. I cannot tell you how angry I was. No pic, no license. Nevertheless, in the Dr’s office the worker runs it through a small device that keeps the record of your license number. Among other things.
Sorry Doctor. It is no confidence.
My SS# is now asked for everything. You usually can deny for Dr offices. It was supposed to be illegal.
The local hospital system will allow anyone in the system to see your doctor records. You can opt out, but it doesn’t mean much. They give themselves permission.
Thirty or so years ago I ignorantly let the California Department of Motor Vehicles fingerprint me in order to get a drivers license.
I felt sooo dirty after-wards. (I’ve since learned, for whatever that’s worth?)
Do they still do that in California?
The march to a Pre-Crime nation has been going on for a long time.
I’ve lost hope that a significant number of “the average guy” will resist.
We’re in the middle of the ultimate livestock tracking program.
Forced vaccinations can’t be too far behind.
This is nothing new. DPS has been fingerprinting for drivers license renewals as long as I can remember. However, the DPS has turned into a dangerous military-like organization. One sassy word or critical look at an officer on a road stop and one is likely to get the crap beaten out of him and then arrested. People fear having contact with these officers because they are such bullies even if the person has done nothing wrong.
They probably already got a bunch of us at a young age. I remember getting a visit in elementary school from the police department and they took our fingerprints, to show us how it’s done. It’s kinda neat when your a kid, but then you get older and realize ‘I committed no crime and the police have my full set of fingerprints’.