"BootFinder"

In a relatively small, but growing number of cities & counties around the nation-- the first of which were Arlington County, Va., and the City of New Haven, Connecticut-- a new piece of computerized equipment is being employed by tax officials, police, to collect unpaid fines. (See stories by CBS, the Yale Herald, and the New Haven Register)
Dubbed "BootFinder" by its manufacturer, G2 Tactics, the device "looks like a radar gun, but is actually an infrared scanner that reads license plate numbers and then runs them against a computer database of deliquent taxes & outstanding tickets. If there's a match, it locks in," and the vehicle can be towed and impounded or immobilized.

Forbes.com on Feb.28th. carried a story reporting that "since last April Arlington County collected $90,000 in outstanding parking tickets and personal property taxes-- including $8,000 from the driver of a Jaguar found parked outside a resturant... New Haven has fared even better, recouping $500,000 "

Not everyone's as thrilled with the device as police and tax agencies. New Haven attorney Arthur Machado has filed a complaint arguing that BootFinder is an unconstitutional illegal search & seizure. "It's the government overreaching," he says, "It looks a lot to me like Big Brother, 1984, you know, George Orwell."