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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

That's entirely possible on buses.

https://smdp.com/news/newsom-signs-bill-allowing-big-blue-bu...

> Current law allows organizations like the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) to issue prohibition orders. BART is the only such agency that has actually issued prohibitions in California, giving out 1,118 such orders from 2019-2022. About 30% of orders issued by BART in 2022 were for battery or threats against riders.

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I can't imagine how this is enforced. Clipper cards and cash will get you on any bus without any sort of check to see if you're allowed. There is probably a lot of overlap of people who get banned the people who skip gates and fares.

If Walmart and Target can manage facial recognition for shoplifting, I'd imagine it's at least possible to do with a bus system.

Walmart and Target probably are a lot less concerned with accuracy than a fare collecting entity would be; any benefit from facial recognition is a plus for them even if it often either is wrong or fails to hit when it should, whereas with toll collection it has to be near 100% to replace other payment mechanism, and nearly never get a false hit (though misses might be okay) to be a convenience method when people are still expected to have a reliable method for on hand for backup.

Ah yes, the legendary facial recognition system—right next to the locked-up underwear and $1 deodorant. Flawless crime-fighting tech, really. /s

> giving out 1,118 such orders from 2019-2022. About 30% of orders issued by BART in 2022 were for battery or threats against riders

Curious if these bans are actually effective.

>Curious if these bans are actually effective.

They probably have all the tech to make them effective but don't want to turn it on for "petty" stuff like this because they don't want normal non-battery inclined customers and the general public to be aware of how surveilled they are on public transit.

I expect that it’s mostly used as an aggravating factor allowing escalated punishment if they cause trouble again.

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