Automatic Number Plate Recognition national network and centralised database for the UK Police ?
Is the United Kingdom really set to have Yet Another National Police Database ?
Automatic Number Plate Recognition seems to be a rapidlly expanding technology amongst the 43 or so UK Police Forces, according to a press release from the Association of Chief Police Officers
John Lettice has a good article in The Register which cites a Police Information Technology Organisation web page which lists the history of ANPR schemes.
Given the 25 to 30 million vehicles on the roads, it makes sense to use this sort of technology to try to clamp down on stolen or untaxed vehicles.
The use of mobile or fixed CCTV camera systems combined with a roadside police intercept team to conduct legal "stops and searches" of vehicles, where the grounds of "reasonable suspicion" have been provided by the ANPR lookup on the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency and Police Intelligence databases, should be a proportionate use of the technology and is to be welcomed.
However, we really do have serious concerns about using ANPR for "intelligence" rather than for "reasonable suspicion" stops and searches.
"Key points from the Strategy include:
- Development of a national infrastructure of ANPR enabled cameras and readers to cover strategic sites
- Developing a National ANPR Data Centre to analyse intelligence from ANPR readers from across the country"
Will this be a new infrastructure of roadside cameras, or will existing systems be hijacked ? Either these existing cameras are not properly justified and are under utilised, or the ANPR tasks will compete with the primary function e.g. traffic queue management
Who exactly pays for this national infrastructure ? The local council tax payers ?
Will the private sector Trafficmaster system be used or will the controversial National Roads Teleccomunications Services Project ?
- "All police forces in England and Wales having at least one dedicated ANPR intercept team by October 2005, with more to follow"
According to thus report in The Guardian, the Police Federation are worried about the decrease in Traffic Police numbers:
"He feels the new officers will be an excuse to whittle down the already dwindling ranks of traffic police, which dropped in manpower from 7,500 to 6,200 between 1998 and 2002"
whose duties, powers and training, especially for "stop and search", cannot be substituted by lower paid civilian auxilaries employed by the Highways Agency.
More ANPR camera technology is unjustifiable if there are even fewer actual Traffic Police patrols on the road.
"Using hypothecated income from Fixed Penalty Notices resulting from ANPR activity to fund further ANPR development"
Hypothecated taxes ? No ! As John Lettice points out, this looks to be as controversial as Speed Cameras or Privatised Car Clamping, where there is plenty of evidence of abuses caused by financial income targets.
- "Using ANPR data within force intelligence and investigative strategies"
The PITO webpage also includes the chilling phrase:
"In addition, PITO’s Central Customer is identifying future ANPR requirements, such as the development of a national database to store all ANPR ‘reads’ and analytical tools to mine this."
This implies collecting and collating ANPR time and location data on millions of innocent vehicles, which are not on any "wanted list".
All the same questions we asked (and failed to get answers about) in our London Congestion Charge Concerns such as Data Retention and other Data Privacy policies comes to mind.
We have extreme privacy concerns about these hidden "intelligence" uses for a national mass surveillance system.
This needs to be invesigated by the Information Commissioner needs to investigate probable breaches of the Data Protection Act, as does the Surveillance Commissioner, for disproportionate use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, before the specifications for the system are finalised.
Comments
Tesco in Watford are now using ANPR to send out fines to people who use their carparks for longer than 3 hours. Since when does my name and address become accessible from my vehicle license plate to anyone other than the DVLA and police?
And since when has it become a crime to park on private property for longer than three hours? I thought it was only a crime if you were asked to stop and don't (trespass).
Posted by: GW | August 2, 2005 10:21 AM
It's legal. Keeper details are available from DVLA if you have a good reason and pay a small fee. There is a code of practise for using keeper details for parking enforcement. The 'fine' is usually called a 'penalty charge' and is enforced in the civil courts - the argument is that you have entered into a contract by parking there having seen the notices outlining the rules. If those notices were absent you would have a defence.
'Private parking tickets' are becoming more common now that wheel clamping is regulated.
The job done by the ANPR was previously done by a minimum wage jobsworth in a high viz yellow jacket with a clipboard. The ANPR is probably somewhat cheaper to run and more accurate. But it won't deter theft of and from vehicles or any other crime in the carpark.
Posted by: Nur Mi | August 2, 2005 10:42 AM
Watford seems to be very keen on ANPR, and the local council are installing a couple of ANPR cameras in their town centre. Why are the local council doing this, rather than the police ? The Local council, or their private sector minimum wage CCTV monitoring staff should not have access to the Police National Computer !
http://www.watford.gov.uk/ccm/content/strategic-services/press-releases/new-weapon-to-catch-criminals-comes-to-watford.en
New weapon to catch criminals comes to Watford
A major new state-of-the-art weapon is set to keep criminals off the Watford’s roads – for good!
Watford Borough Council’s Cabinet decided at its meeting on Monday 18th July to install an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. It will be positioned in a town centre location, probably on Beechen Grove, with cameras pointing in both directions and could be in place by September.
It will be able to spot automatically if there is an untaxed or uninsured vehicle on the road – or one that has been involved in a crime. The information would then be forwarded to a control room where a CCTV operator would be alerted, as well as Hertfordshire Constabulary who could deploy officers to make an arrest.
Dorothy Thornhill, Mayor of Watford, has personally seen the system in operation and believes it will be a major asset in keeping Watford safe.
Mayor Thornhill said: “This system is stunningly effective in identifying criminals and helping to catch them. We know that in areas where ANPR operates arrest rates can be ten times higher than with conventional methods. This will help drive criminals out of Watford.
"This has come about because of the Council working with the police as part of the Community Safety Partnership. It is good news for decent law-abiding residents – and bad news for criminals."
The ANPR system costs £102,000 and is funded by the Home Office through Hertfordshire Constabulary.
Posted by: wtwu | August 2, 2005 10:55 AM
Can anyone state, definitively, if "clean" car numbers are stored, or is the data ditched immediately. I fear that a permanent (or semi-permanent) record will be kept of all vehicles entering this grubby little town.
Posted by: A Tench | August 2, 2005 12:37 PM
Data retention and what happens to the records of innocent motorists is a grey area which is almost certainly being abused by existing ANPR schemes.
The London Congestion Charge ANPR scheme, for instance, claims not to store the images of the Number Plates, or the "background scene" images of the vehicles and possibly the drivers for more than 24 hours.
However, they have refused to reveal so far, what they do with the *processed" data i.e. text files with vehicle number plate, camera location, time, date etc.
http://www.spy.org.uk/cgi-bin/cclondon.pl
We assume that this data is retained for much longer than necessary for the administration of the Congestion Charge, and that it is passed on illegally to unknown parties (nothing that Transport for London or Capita plc have said on the matter reassure us otherwise)
The eGov Moonitor version of the press release about Watford Council's ANPR plans
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/2000
has the worrying paragraph:
"It could help the Council create a database of its own wanted vehicles. For example, it would be possible to maintain a database of known persistent fly-tipping vehicles, known illegal private hire vehicles or unlicensed taxis, or vehicles wanted in connection with persistent parking offences."
Or it could be used to track the movements, and look up the home addresses, of political opponents who have not committed any actual criminal offences at all.
Neither a Local Council nor any of its private sector CCTV monitoting staff should be allowed to have a "backdoor" access to either the DVLA or the PNC databases which should only be accessed by Police officers, and then, only if it is actually part of a roadside enforcement operation, where suspect vehicles are actually being stopped by a roadside patrol.
Data Mining the movements of thousands of innocent mototorists for no specific reason, is not acceptable.
http://www.spy.org.uk/cgi-bin/trafficmaster.pl
Neither woukd Tesco's use of ANPR be acceptable for say market research, of the people visiting their stores by car, without obtaining their prior informed consent,
Posted by: wtwu | August 2, 2005 1:08 PM
ANPR is great!, at controlling law abiding people!!
Any self respecting criminal will just obtain a false number plate, probably copied from a similar make/model. Not so easy I hear you cry, the government has made obtaining number plates difficult!, yeh right - If I can get replacement plates without filling in forms, etc, then I am sure the bad guys can.
Laws only apply to law abiding people, thats why the name "outlaw" was coined for those living outside the law !
Posted by: Normal Person | August 3, 2005 10:44 AM
Hi
Can anyone tell me what a registration plate with the letter z in it means.
In this context E.G.TR05 ZPL, the Z being at the first of the last 3 letters.
Would be a great help.
Many Thanks
Paul
Posted by: Paul | September 27, 2006 10:56 PM