[Editorial] The effects of terrorism are being felt by nearly every country now, east and west. From the continuing plague of ISIS in the Middle East, to domestic attacks such as those in Moore, Oklahoma, to the assault on the Canadian parliament building – the message being sent is very clear: No one is immune.

These attacks are not confined to any one kind of victim, not restricted inside any set of borders.

It is important to understand that these attacks are not about killing thousands of people at once, but rather to create an atmosphere of panic and fear; that is, to inspire terror.

This terror is palpable enough that even peaceful, law-abiding Muslims have reason to be afraid, if not of attacks by their own brethren who feel they are not “Muslim enough,” then from Western governments who now must regard them with a suspicious eye.

If left unchecked, this small, pernicious cabal of radicals could conceivably cause the rebirth of World War II-style internment camps, where hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims would suffer the same degradation as did their Japanese counterparts in the 1940s.
 
We cannot let this happen. Instead of punishing the many for the crimes of the few, we need to target the few.
 
To do this, we need more technologically advanced solutions such as license plate recognition (LPR/ANPR) and video data analytics that would allow perpetrators to be associated with vehicles and their tags.

The technology would provide invaluable information that can be utilized by security agencies in conjunction with the intelligence they currently use to prevent terrorist acts.

The sad fact is that domestic terrorism can rear its head anywhere and at any time.

No longer does the new breed of terrorist act in a coordinated fashion; rather, individuals now often act alone with the only link between them and others like them being an ideology.

This is how someone can brazenly decapitate an innocent person in broad daylight in hometown America.

The only way to fight people like this is to use technology to associate individuals of interest to vehicles.

The locations of these vehicles in turn provide information that government agencies can act on.

Our enemy may be faceless in a crowd, but license plates never blend in, never allow dissociation amongst those that wish to do this country and its citizens harm.

Now, to those individuals who see the rise of this kind of technology as a threat to privacy, I would ask a simple question: What is it that you fear so much that you would continue to allow Americans to die at the hands of terrorists?

Remember that LPR and analytic technologies, such as those created by Platesmart, do not allow unauthorized personnel to access personal data.

Rather, they provide security agencies, city authorities, airports, seaports, and more with not only the ability to better gather data but also the analytics that enable them to be more proactive and to act in real time to prevent potential threats.
 
Many would prefer that the terror of 9/11 be thought of as an isolated day in history, despite the fact that the effects and the death rates associated with 9/11 continue to grow on a daily basis.

Many victims who were not directly killed in the attacks nevertheless suffer injuries or illnesses that have shortened their otherwise productive lives.

Some victims’ children continue to suffer from the pain and cost of having to care for someone with a debilitating condition. 

How many deaths, I wonder, have not been accounted for that were caused by having to walk through the clouds of poisonous chemicals that resulted from the collapse of the Twin Towers? I, for one, cannot bury my head in the sand.
 
We must use any and every technology available to stop these individuals from committing acts that no sane individual would ever consider.

John Chigos is the Founder, Chairman & CEO at PlateSmart Technologies, Inc.