Catching automotive scofflaws on my street
April 16, 2011 9:46 PM Subscribe
Automated camera w/infrared for catching scofflaws (boom cars)?
On a regular basis during warm weather, various ass clowns drive down my street with their subwoofers booming. Those familiar with these idiots know that bass-heavy music played through certain car stereos can be heard from one full block away.
During the day, I can rush outside and sometimes catch a license number for reporting to the police. At night, however, especially when I am snug in bed at 1 a.m., I couldn't even get out of bed fast enough to catch them (and it's dark anyway).
I'm wondering what creative solutions folks might have. There's a tree in front my house where I could mount a camera, but there is the problem of getting a good clear shot of the license plates, especially in the dark.
Arduino? Chumby? Wireless camera? Some cool open source device? Other ideas? If I had unlimited funds of course I'd come up with something really sweet. But alas, I do not.
Before anyone gets sidetracked with comments about "Who cares?" or "Why don't the cops catch these guys?": a) I care, as no one has a right to broadcast their shitty music in to my house at 1 a.m., b) cops usually have other priorities, for better or worse.
On a regular basis during warm weather, various ass clowns drive down my street with their subwoofers booming. Those familiar with these idiots know that bass-heavy music played through certain car stereos can be heard from one full block away.
During the day, I can rush outside and sometimes catch a license number for reporting to the police. At night, however, especially when I am snug in bed at 1 a.m., I couldn't even get out of bed fast enough to catch them (and it's dark anyway).
I'm wondering what creative solutions folks might have. There's a tree in front my house where I could mount a camera, but there is the problem of getting a good clear shot of the license plates, especially in the dark.
Arduino? Chumby? Wireless camera? Some cool open source device? Other ideas? If I had unlimited funds of course I'd come up with something really sweet. But alas, I do not.
Before anyone gets sidetracked with comments about "Who cares?" or "Why don't the cops catch these guys?": a) I care, as no one has a right to broadcast their shitty music in to my house at 1 a.m., b) cops usually have other priorities, for better or worse.
You could combine a sound trigger with an infrared camera.
posted by mkdg at 10:20 PM on April 16, 2011
posted by mkdg at 10:20 PM on April 16, 2011
One possible issue is that you need to be able to prove which car is responsible if you're going to pursue any actions based on the evidence. And bass is very non-directional. If you just have a sound trigger that is hooked to a camera, you could end up taking a picture of an innocent driver/car if there was another booming car behind it, or a booming car driving on a side-street or alley, off-camera.
So I think you'd want to record enough sound and video before and after each incident that you could see how well the recorded bass level matched the passage of the car.
posted by Hither at 10:44 PM on April 16, 2011
So I think you'd want to record enough sound and video before and after each incident that you could see how well the recorded bass level matched the passage of the car.
posted by Hither at 10:44 PM on April 16, 2011
The first question I would have is what do the police do with the license plate numbers when you report them? Presumably, they aren't going out and issuing tickets based on your say-so, so are they doing anything at all or just thanking you and hanging up? Certainly I understand why you care and support your efforts toward a quieter neighborhood, but going to so much effort and expense to build a gizmo if the reports will just be ignored isn't a good use of your time and does nothing to solve the problem.
Perhaps there's a way to work more closely with the police here? Or maybe other commentators have suggestions on ways to get more involved in local government or a neighborhood association that could promote efforts to better address the problem?
posted by zachlipton at 11:04 PM on April 16, 2011 [3 favorites]
Perhaps there's a way to work more closely with the police here? Or maybe other commentators have suggestions on ways to get more involved in local government or a neighborhood association that could promote efforts to better address the problem?
posted by zachlipton at 11:04 PM on April 16, 2011 [3 favorites]
I lived on a street leading from downtown to a low income housing development and had a stoplight in front of the house.
I only lived there a year, though I owned it for four. It was a riot! I mean some of the boom machines would loosen lug nuts and dental fillings. I think there was a place on the Richter scale for some settings. I saw birds knocked from the sky. Leaves caught on fire and the wind was forced to change direction.
During the day was worse than at night, but at all hours, EMS and The Man (a.k.a., "Po Po") were zooming by with sirens blaring.
The sound was a pain in the ass, but unless you are a truly special flake of snowiness, it's hard to complain about humidity if your house is in Venice. The most flexible, important, cheap, easy to install, foolproof, and long-term-useful thing to use is attitude. Second is relocation, if economically and logistically possible. Third is masking the noise. There are a number of ways to do this.
You have to realize... for some folks, this is all they have. Noise. Get noticed. Stick out. Broadcast. Also, some people really don't think they'll need hearing in a few years, and are spending their allocation unwisely.
I'm an engineer, and thus, master of the world I live in. (And of course, I never, EVAR make mistakes and have all the manswers you will ever need!) If you REALLY want to do this, shoot me an email and I'll describe some ways to detect and record events in the world around you. I think all you really need is a tape recorder with adjustable voice activation levels, some attenuating and bandpass stuff, a few old throwaway digital cameras with flash and remote triggering features, a mount, power source, and some persistence to do what you want to do. $100 worth of junk, basically. It won't work long, will get stolen or rained on, and will work about 1/2 the time, but it can easily be done. (In such matters, there are no precision specs, low quality requirements, low reliability requirements, and the signal to detect is very, very, very easy to detect. )
posted by FauxScot at 4:11 AM on April 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
I only lived there a year, though I owned it for four. It was a riot! I mean some of the boom machines would loosen lug nuts and dental fillings. I think there was a place on the Richter scale for some settings. I saw birds knocked from the sky. Leaves caught on fire and the wind was forced to change direction.
During the day was worse than at night, but at all hours, EMS and The Man (a.k.a., "Po Po") were zooming by with sirens blaring.
The sound was a pain in the ass, but unless you are a truly special flake of snowiness, it's hard to complain about humidity if your house is in Venice. The most flexible, important, cheap, easy to install, foolproof, and long-term-useful thing to use is attitude. Second is relocation, if economically and logistically possible. Third is masking the noise. There are a number of ways to do this.
You have to realize... for some folks, this is all they have. Noise. Get noticed. Stick out. Broadcast. Also, some people really don't think they'll need hearing in a few years, and are spending their allocation unwisely.
I'm an engineer, and thus, master of the world I live in. (And of course, I never, EVAR make mistakes and have all the manswers you will ever need!) If you REALLY want to do this, shoot me an email and I'll describe some ways to detect and record events in the world around you. I think all you really need is a tape recorder with adjustable voice activation levels, some attenuating and bandpass stuff, a few old throwaway digital cameras with flash and remote triggering features, a mount, power source, and some persistence to do what you want to do. $100 worth of junk, basically. It won't work long, will get stolen or rained on, and will work about 1/2 the time, but it can easily be done. (In such matters, there are no precision specs, low quality requirements, low reliability requirements, and the signal to detect is very, very, very easy to detect. )
posted by FauxScot at 4:11 AM on April 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
The simple way to do this is to identify a time when this happens most often, and place a video camera in your window that can record for a long time (an old VHS camcorder can record, say, two hours at a stretch, and you can get them on eBay for $20).
Write down the time you start recording, so when you hear the bass go by, you can find the car and associated audio later.
posted by fake at 6:29 AM on April 17, 2011
Write down the time you start recording, so when you hear the bass go by, you can find the car and associated audio later.
posted by fake at 6:29 AM on April 17, 2011
This does not answer the meat of your question, but it has some bearing on the endeavor: when you call the cops, they're probably just pretending to even take down the plate numbers. One person complaining equals "crank." You should also plan on distributing the videos to your neighbors and encouraging them to call as well because lots of people complaining means "discontent" and the police might actually be moved to care. I don't have high hopes there either because presumably lots of people on other streets are affected by this antisocial behavior as well and the cops have elected not to address it. But you won't be able to address this alone.
You might even post the videos to a sharing service, build a little website to aggregate them and publicize it locally. If you're going to the trouble and expense of collecting this information, share it as widely as possible.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:11 AM on April 17, 2011
You might even post the videos to a sharing service, build a little website to aggregate them and publicize it locally. If you're going to the trouble and expense of collecting this information, share it as widely as possible.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:11 AM on April 17, 2011
A microphone with a lot pass filter, a cheap amplifier, a NC relay and a camera with the ability to support a remote on switch would do everything you needed.
But really, it would be easier to just take some video of cars going by on your street and then overdub the sound of intense base over the cars of the people you didn't like, which is why the police aren't going to write anyone a ticket even if you have a picture with their license plate number in it.
The best you can probably hope for is for the cops to write a few more tickets for this sort of behavior.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:24 AM on April 17, 2011
But really, it would be easier to just take some video of cars going by on your street and then overdub the sound of intense base over the cars of the people you didn't like, which is why the police aren't going to write anyone a ticket even if you have a picture with their license plate number in it.
The best you can probably hope for is for the cops to write a few more tickets for this sort of behavior.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:24 AM on April 17, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for the info, all. The complaint procedure in my city is to fill out a form with the time, location, automobile info, license plate, and draw the offender's car on a little map.
If I use video and audio it will be to catch the nighttime offenders.
The cops follow up on at least some of the complains. The fine if they ID the offender is $100. Fair to say that once someone gets hit with one or two of these they stop broadcasting.
posted by 4midori at 9:56 AM on April 17, 2011
If I use video and audio it will be to catch the nighttime offenders.
The cops follow up on at least some of the complains. The fine if they ID the offender is $100. Fair to say that once someone gets hit with one or two of these they stop broadcasting.
posted by 4midori at 9:56 AM on April 17, 2011
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posted by rhizome at 9:55 PM on April 16, 2011