What KSAT-12 didn't tell you tonight about Vigilant Solutions

by Chris Stouffer

If you were watching KSAT-12 News tonight in San Antonio, or anywhere else online, you may have seen a story about an easier way for the San Antonio Police Department to find and collect fines during warrant roundups. San Antonio wants to partner up with a California-based company called Vigilant Solutions.
Vigilant Solutions offers a product known as Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR), or simply LPR. According to their website, it's a tool that "ultimately saves lives." The website goes on to say that this product is "the most comprehensive offering available, with over tens of thousands of users around the world, and thousands of success stories."
The company collects your data to share with credentialed law enforcement personnel, and is readily accessible and easy to use. What they don't tell you is that once your information is collected, that information is sold, and you can kiss your privacy goodbye.
According to The Atlantic website, Vigilant Solutions takes "photos of cars and trucks with its vast network of unobtrusive cameras. It retains location data of each of those pictures, and sells it." It has taken 2.2 billion license-plate photos to date, capturing and storing these images. Once their device have captured your information, your whereabouts at any given moment are stored permanently and sold to police departments using your tax dollars.
The City of Kyle, just south of Austin, almost partnered up with Vigilant Solutions, but in a 6-1 vote last week during a city council meeting, they decided to rescind their agreement. The city would have paid Vigilant Solutions a 25-percent surcharge to help police identify drivers with outstanding warrants, and collect their fines onsite, according to The Texas Tribune. Kyle officials voted to join the program in January.
Kyle City Council Member, Daphne Tenorio, told the Tribune she was comfortable with the idea when they first voted. She later had doubts when she realized the plan would hurt the poor most.
"It was too much Big Brother," she said to the Texas Tribune. "And there was no way that they could honestly say that the information was safe. And in this day of technology, with hackers nothing is safe. I wouldn't want my information being given and shared with other people."
The Wall Street Journal reported that "during the past five years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has distributed more than $50 million in federal grants to law-enforcement agencies—ranging from sprawling Los Angeles to little Crisp County, Georgia, population 23,000—for automated license-plate recognition systems." It also quoted one critic, California state Senator Joe Simitian, asking: “Should a cop who thinks you're cute have access to your daily movements for the past 10 years without your knowledge or consent? I think the answer to that question should be ‘no.’”
As of now, Vigilant Solutions has no sure safeguard in place to protect any of the data they collect. Fewer than a dozen communities in Texas are currently participating in this pilot program.

DTF only the beginning of Seven Minutes In Heaven 2016

A large crowd was DTF last night as Invisible Gallery took over R Space on the city's south side for a fundraiser to benefit the upcoming show Seven Minutes In Heaven 2016, but it was the artwork that had people's curiosity engaged.
Invisible Gallery founder and curator, Jessica Garcia, was the mastermind behind the fundraiser, fittingly titled DTF - Down To Fundraiser, which tied in with the sexual theme of her upcoming show in March, Seven Minutes In Heaven 2016. The acronym DTF is used in sexting. Replacing "fundraise" in this case with a commonly used explicit "F" word might give you a better clue. Garcia admitted this year's fundraiser was organized in very little time due to some unexpected last minute changes.
"It was very rushed," said Garcia. "I think I did it in like three to four weeks. Most of it was planned in the last two weeks since the venue change. I had a bigger gallery to fill."
Garcia originally planned on having the Fox Motel host her fundraiser as it had in the past. After discovering the sketchy motel had closed recently, she quickly needed a change of plans.
"I thought the motel would bring more people in since they love to get in the rooms," Garcia said. Last minute or not, the event was well organized and was hosted by R Space Gallery located at 110 East Lachapelle Street on the south side of San Antonio. R Space Gallery owner and curator, Alex Rubio, was also a contributor to Seven Minutes In Heaven 2014.
For a $10 donation, guests were treated to erotic inspired art, specialty drinks at the bar, and music by DJs Sneaky Le Sneak and El Fenix. Contributing artists for this year's SMIH will include Linda Arredondo, Louie Chavez, Eugene Martinez, Sarah Roberts, John Cody Williams, and Jose Villalobos.

Artist Eugene Martinez explored the idea of fetishes and sex toys in his pieces, mostly acrylic on MDF board.
"I want a little bit more of the toys," Martinez said about what he plans on including in this year's show. "I like the puppy play, explore more fetishes, just more fun stuff." He added that he would also like to include something three dimensional with more depth. Owner and operator of Salon D'Amore in San Antonio's Southtown area, Holly Gonzalez, enjoyed herself at DTF while taking in some of the art and sipping on Sweet Snatch, just one of the specialty drinks offered at the bar.
"Everything that I've seen here is very different," Gonzalez said. "I've never seen anything like this."
Although it was different from anything she had seen, Gonzalez said she was looking forward to SMIH 2016 next month.
Seven Minutes In Heaven is an annual erotic art show that happens every March for Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio. Artists choose their themes and are encouraged to push boundaries. The show takes over a motel every year. The unique setting allows for a new context of the artwork, using the motel as inspiration to expand art out of the traditional gallery space.