GITS: SAC - "Missing Hearts" - On EIS Architecture

The eighth episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex involves a group of medical students who are illegally acquiring human organs and selling them on the black market. When Section 9 discovers this, the students lead them on a high-speed chase through the city.

One of the tools Major Kusanagi has at her disposal is an Emergency Information System broadcaster, which is outfitted to her private vehicle. She uses this to launch a probe virus through the long-range radio wave systems of other cars on the expressway. This virus temporarily disables all vehicles in the area except the target, allowing Kusanagi to catch up to and gather information on the vehicle and its occupants.

While the system used in the anime is highly advanced, basic systems are already functional and used in cars today. For example, did you know that the OnStar system equipped to several General Motors vehicles has the ability not only to track the location of a vehicle, but to shut down its engine remotely?

This was subject to major criticism by political pundits such as Glenn Beck, who argued that it could be used by law-enforcement agencies to remote-shutdown vehicles in a manner that violates constitutional rights. Knowing that the ability to shut down not one, but multiple vehicles at once could be possible only furthers the cause for concern.

On the other hand, there are ways in which this architecture can be very beneficial to motorists during a high-risk law-enforcement situation. Instead of disabling vehicles, simply notifying vehicles through their onboard displays of a high-risk motorist approaching would work just as well. It would give motorists the proper time to yield, clearing a path for law-enforcement to continue pursuit of the target.

Additionally, the system can be used to work with truckers to set up rolling roadblocks. Truckers would be given a message on their onboard computers to slow down and coordinate themselves to block all lanes and shoulders on a section of roadway, forcing the stop of a high-risk motorist so law-enforcement can take down the target.

What is important, to ensure the freedom of the law-abiding motorist, is to rely on alternative methods of rounding up a target vehicle. Disabling should only be used as a last resort; an option granted only to the highest level personnel and only after the worst conditions are met. Taking this action before the conditions warrant it should be heavily penalized, to ensure that it is not misused. Taking this action off the table completely, however, is no longer a possibility.