Many of today's police cars are outfitted with high tech cameras that can scan license plates across four lanes of traffic. They're designed to help stop terrorism, but police departments are using them for a more lucrative purpose: nabbing people for unpaid traffic fines. On today’s show, the ultimate traffic cops.
Plus, would you take investment advice from a robot? With an increasing number of banks offering automated services, we'll get a profile of investors willing to ditch traditional financial advisors for an algorithm.
All that plus a conversation with Jim Carter, better known as Carson the Butler from Downton Abbey
Listen to the full show.
Traffic Cops in the Age of Super Surveillance
Alex Campbelland Kendall Taggart are investigative reporters for BuzzFeed - together they tell the story of how lucrative license plate readers have been for the crumbling town of Port Arthur, Texas. Police say it's making the roads safer - but Alex and Kendall found that the cost to the town's poorest citizens is disproportionately high.
Read the article: "The Ticket Machine"
Robo-Advisors
Would you take financial advice from a robot? Here to shed some light on the new trend in financial planning—“robo-advising”—is Rob Fleischman, a principal architect at Akamai and our chief explainer of all things technological.
The Fresno Drop
Financial technology has come a long way in the past few decades. From split second global transactions to bitcoin, the way our money moves and operates in the world is changing all the time. But few advances in fin-tech will ever be as transformative as an innovation that made its debut in the late 1950s. Roman Mars, creator of the podcast 99% Invisible, has the story.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
Carson the Butler
Jim Carter is an actor perhaps best known as Carson, the Butler from the hit TV series Downton Abbey. He’s doing a series of live shows in the US to raise money for the victims of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.
Music Hall in Portsmouth – February 18th
Somerville Theater in Somerville, MA – February 19th
Regent Theater in Arlington, MA– February 21st
