Editorial by John Chigos. The views expressed above are those of Mr. John Chigos. Please click the link below and read his entire editorial. Leave us your comments below.

The tenth terrorist plot to be thwarted since the beginning of the year might easily have been a replay of the Boston Marathon bombing, except that the mentally ill young man plotting the attack had been under surveillance since September of 2014. The suspect, who is the 23-year-old son of the Boston Police captain who turned him in, was charged with the plot by Federal authorities in a statement released on July 13th.

Inspired by ISIS and following the example of the Tsarnaev brothers, the man had already purchased a pressure cooker and was planning to attack a college campus when he was arrested.

The suspect, Alexander Ciccolo of Adams, Massachusetts, was known to have a history of mental illness as well as a growing obsession with ISIS, both reasons that a combined task force of Federal and State authorities had been monitoring him for so many months.

It was through this lengthy surveillance that they were aware of Ciccolo’s recent purchases, which included not only the pressure cooker but also a sizable cache of guns. He was said by witnesses to have expressed his desire that the attack he was planning be broadcast over the Internet.

Thankfully, this individual is now in custody and will hopefully never be in a position to harm the public again, but I can’t rid myself of the thought that this could have gone very differently. If the appropriate agencies had not been monitoring Ciccolo for months, gathering evidence and piecing together his plans, most likely we would have seen another pressure cooker bombing that would dwarf the Boston Marathon.

It was only by tracking his actions over time that counter-terrorism agents were able to deduce his intent. We have technology available to us, such as the Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) based video analytics made by PlateSmart, that helps law enforcement and security agencies do their jobs better.

By gathering and storing license plate information over time provides with actionable intelligence, whereas, there doesn’t seem to be any opposition to the kind of human surveillance carried out on Ciccolo. Somehow there is a groundswell of protest against the use of advanced video analytics technology for similar purposes.

Remember, Ciccolo only appeared on the authorities’ radar because his police captain father alerted them. Had that not been the case, it is possible that the only way they would have even known that he needed watching was if a suspicious movement pattern was detected by an ALPR system.

Keep in mind also that he got his information on ISIS and his idea for the bomb through the use of technology (the Internet). Despite these facts, there are some in this country who would place us at a distinct disadvantage by restricting our ability to collect and store historical license plate capture data due to some misplaced concern over privacy.

As I have repeatedly stated, stored ALPR data does not violate anyone’s privacy. In and of itself, it indicates nothing. It only becomes relevant when it indicates a pattern of behavior that warrants further investigation; any other time, the authorities are not going to even look at it. The bottom line is, if we eliminate the ability to retain historical data such as license plate captures, we deprive ourselves of what may be the only evidence indicating a possible terrorist attack.

Admittedly, I am not as eloquent as our President, who in his recent speech on the Iran deal essentially stated that we have only two options when it comes to dealing with that nation: (1) easing sanctions and monitoring them; or (2) all-out war. I cannot sell our technology as a “feel-good” solution that uninformed members of the public can get behind as Mr. Obama did with his arrangement with Iran.

Unfortunately, we are already at war with the very terrorists Iran supports. That being the case, we know we must treat them like we would treat any other enemy—we must monitor their communications and track their movements. In other words, we must gather as much actionable intelligence as we can on them. This may be uncomfortable or even unpleasant for some members of the public, but we have no choice.

Security technologies of all types, whether ALPR or other forms of monitoring or analytics, must be used to their fullest extent. The data they produce must be gathered, analyzed, and acted upon.

The President suggested that if anyone has a better suggestion for a solution, they should make it. I say the same thing – if anyone has a better solution for dealing with the terrorist threat and preserving our security, please speak up and justify the restriction or suppression of vital tools for our protection.

About The Author:
John Chigos
Founder, Chairman, & CEO
PlateSmart Technologies, Inc. http://www.platesmart.com/

Editorial by John Chigos. The views expressed above are those of Mr. John Chigos. Please click the link below and read his entire editorial. Leave us your comments below.