Spy Blog - SpyBlog.org.uk

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read that article as saying ALL readings will be recorded with position and time and stored for two years, not just those that get flagged up as suspect in some way or those that are "associated". So regardless of whether I am suspected of anything my movements get to be recorded for two years (possibly to be extended to five). Some of the news reports on the PC Sharon Beshinivsky investigation seemed to suggest that ANPR was used to trace vehicles used very quickly, so in some areas it must already be in operation.

@ Michael - you are correct, unfortunately.

Each Police force now has at least one Mobile ANPR unit. This should be acceptable to most people, since it is used in combination with a roadside stop, search and arrest team to actually pull illegal drivers or wanted criminals off the road, and they do not store the information from all the innocent motorists who pass by.

That is not what this centralised National ANPR Database is all about.

Read our Automatic Number Plate Recognition Category for some previous blog postings on this subject.

It is unclear if ANPR rather than just conventional CCTV or witness statements played any role tracking down the vehicle hired from Heathrow airport, by the people who tried to rob the travel agency in Bradford and who shot the two women PCs. All the six suspects who were brought to Bradford from London, blocking the M1 motorway, were released without charge, or on bail on unrelated charges.

Theare are an increasing number of fixed camera systems which have ANPR software processing behind them, notably the London Congestion Chareg, the City of London "ring of steel", and the Trafficmaster system on cobalt blue cameras poles by roadsides and on motorway bridges, plus other systems at all our major sea ports.

The 7th of July London suicide bombers seem to have hired a car and drove their bombs to a mainline railway station i.e. one single apparently innocent journey. The National ANPR Database would have been useless in warning of this sort of terrorist attack.

I am very surprised not to have seen more mainstream media coverage of this story since as you point out in your blog, this is being grafted onto existing camera installations without any a consultation, debate or parliamentary process. I assume that the legal situation is such that this is possible to do without legal challenge. If so, that itself is sad since as you point out yourself there is a strong distinction between using technology to catch people committing crimes and creating a comprehensive record of the peoples' movements through mass surveillance. I find it incomprehensible that this is not a national controversy.

What accuracy rates are ANPR systems achieving?

Isn't there a large scope for people being hassled due to misidentification in this system?

Also, couldn't criminals simply get fake foreign plates to circumvent it?

Watching you Brits from the USA.
Very worrisome. Things are going on here as well. Not sure if it's the same in UK but all cellular phones in the US are required to have GPS built in "For emergency use". The cellphone companies are fed the exact locations of all cell phones so long as they are turned on (you don't need to be talking on the phone). There are no restrictions as far as I know as to how this information is logged and disseminated. If you're driving they know within a few meters where you are, which way you're headed, and exactly how fast you're traveling. They know if you're exceeding the speed limits. And they can log it. And they can sell the information to marketers. Law enforcement of course has access to this as well. Also, here in New York State all cars must now have an onboard computer which retains information and must by law be annually connected to government computers supposedly to monitor safety concerns. A logging gps here is the next step of course.

@ Earl - don't forget the "black box flight recorder" chips built into airbags, which record your speed for a few seconds before an accident which sets off the airbag.

There is no E111 mobile phone legislation or infrastructure yet here in the UK , but there are plans for all new vehicles in Europe, from 2009, to be fitted with mobile phone / GPS tracking "eCall" devices which would automatically call and relay your position to the Emergency Services in case of an accident. In order to work, these will also , therefore periodically have to handshake with the mobile phone network (just like a cell phone) and reveal your journey patterns for the vast majority of time when you are driving unharmed.

The Mobile Phone Location Based Services are also getting more accurate with the use of realtime triangulation from neighbouring cell towers i.e. a position fix within a Cell, and not just a rough location by Cell ID (which, in cities is pretty accurate anyway given the high density of base stations).

Remember that all such Mobile Phone Communications Traffic Data is set to be Retained for at least 2 years, on all the innocent mobile phone users in Europe under the new EU Data Retention directive.

Do the advantages of catching a few amateur and unskilled criminals (not any professional serious organised criminals or trained terrorists) really outweigh the massive privacy invasion into the lives of millions of innocent people ?

Let's just think about this one for a moment; police to monitor EVERY journey made by Britain's motorists. Well given that only about 0.1 % of roads are currently equipped with CCTV (rough guess) how are they going to do that? OK they can link other spy camera systems at petrol stations and supermarkets, and town centres, but that would still leave the vast majority of roads and locations uncovered - for the time being, perhaps. Of course it will be these "uncovered roads" that criminals will use. As to the efficacy of ANPR, see this:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/58555/cops_turn_off_plate_gadget.html

I wonder whether this devilish plan is just the aspiration of the surveillance fanatics of ACPO and the Home Office, who haven't really thought it through, or is it official government policy. If it's the latter, then we've got a major problem in this country. This idea would be the biggest step yet towards the Orwellian nightmare of 1984, and would bring us very close to the total survelliance portrayed in that book. It's unfortunate that every one of these new attacks on our freedom are not seen in the whole. Witness Edmund King from the RAC who thinks this proposed expansion of ANPR is a good idea. However, when it's added to ID cards, the Children's database, CCTV on every steet corner, e-borders, mobile phone traffic retention, RFID, the cashless society, and many other infringements of privacy, then a different picture is seen - one in which Britain is rapidly becoming a society of total surveillance where the state knows EVERYTHING about us. We are not quite there yet, but as the data protection commissioner said, we are in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society (paraphrased). Well, we're not in danger of it - we are doing it! Bit by bit (and the ANPR proposals are a massive bit) we are getting there, and no-one seems that concerned.

We must ask what is government policy regarding this outrageous proposal. Where has the public consultation been?

If this continues, the data protection commissioner might as well just shut up shop and emigrate.

What does David Cameron think about this one?

How long before spy cameras are in the home and we are all chipped up, like a dog!! There aren't half some bastards in Britain today, mainly in the ranks of NuLabour and the police.

I'm ashamed that Britain is the first country in the world to try this out. I'm ashamed the British people voted for Blair.

'never thought I say it...

In the car wash the other day I saw a Mondeo with (a badly made) set of false plates; "8" made into "3" with a bit of sticky tape; Racer boy through and through... Quite convincing actually; without closer inspection.

But I was impressed: I can sit about in a middle aged BMW kind of way and get heated about my loss of liberties which I *do* care about... But here was someone prepared to fake a numberplate (maybe for neferous stuff; I didnt ask) and I realised what a wet blanket I had become.

So convinced of my own righteousness, so convinced of my understanding of "law", so complacent of my superiority in regarding myself to be a "good citizen" I naturally ignored it. Again...

How ya do

Heres the thin end; as it were. Mr Blair et al don't give the slightest shit what you think about civil liberties; its a bargaining political game. as far as hes concerned.

Mr racer boy.. I salute you; for having the only one amongst us who has any spine at all...

jono

@ jono - there are otherwise harmless old aged pensioner ladies who do exactly the same thing, in order to try to avoid paying the intrusive London Congestion Charge, despite the chance of a fine of up to £1000 for tampering with a vehicle licence plate.

If you feel strongly about the loss of liberty and freedom, and potential security risks which these mass surveillance systems imply, then at least do the "middle aged BMW" "good citizen" thing and write to your Member of Parliament e.g. via WriteToThem

I spoke to several incredibly evasive police regarding Bristol's ANPR including one who asked me to submit a FOI request for HIS benefit!?

Apparently, Avon & Somerset Constabulary now have the capability of
tracking a whopping 250,000 cars a day through 134 fixed cameras & 2 mobile ones. The data is kept for 12 months, 3 years for any flagged as suspicious.

It is linked through the PNC to the DVLA database(s). Since the NIR contains your DVLA number, this is the first part of the mass surveillance system that will be connected via the NIR.

@ Dave - that is interesting, as those are actually shorter Data Retention periods from those in the ACPO Guidance document

http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/2005/11/anpr_automatic_number_plate_re.html

Eventually there will be monitoring systems EVERYWHERE!

What is depressing is that when the public are monitored and do something wrong, they get done; yet when the police are monitored, (shown on CCTV laughing while some poor guy dies, on a police station floor, from wounds obviously inflicted while in police custody, for example) nothing happens.

Big Brother is watching you, We obviously don't have it in us to stop him. The claim is always made that only criminals would want to stop erosion of civil liberties. Firstly, we should ask ourselves, what makes a criminal? In Germany in the thirties and early forties, you were a criminal if you sheltered a Jew! So is someone who resists being watched a criminal?

It is easy for the State to start criminalising more and more behaviour, starting, logically, with making it a crime to resist the tide of technology designed to watch you.

Secondly, we should ask, what is reasonable? Obviously we shouldn't allow rapists, muggers and murderers to roam our streets, but a society where it was impossible for them to do so wouldn't be a very pleasant society.

There appears to be a simple relationship in societies. You can have a population with no policing and therefore anarchy and massive amounts of crime. You could also have a Police State with a great deal of repression. There is the same amount of crime, but it is mainly committed by the state. The ideal, as in so many other areas of life, would appear to be somewhere in the middle.

It would help, of course, in the reduction of crime on both sides of the fence, if children were taught, from a very young age, to have empathy and to develop logical patterns of thought. Having talked to many criminals, it is obvious that both of these thought processes are very definately missing. Unfortunately, they often seem to be missing from politicians and bureaucrats as well.

It is already too late, of course; the thin end of the wedge has been inserted. Don't make the mistake of thinking that it has been inserted by people who are any more intelligent, or well informed than you are.

We are sleepwalking into an Orwellian nightmare, the criminals have provided the excuse, but it may make us all criminals in the end.

We have taken the first perilous steps in the erosion of personal freedom and movement in the UK. A Big Brother state is imminent! God help our children’s children!

It's worse than that.
I was stopped in my car for an alleged offence committed by no-one (except in the PCs mind) and although there may be evidence to throw doubt on the case I have no access to prove that two blue vans were on the road with me. Classic abuse of power - CPS with unreleased evidence - use it or lose it.

Yes, I know its turning into a Big Brother society, but if you cant beat them join them . This website has lots of Spy Camera systems which will enable you to keep an eye on those keeping an eye on you!

Very shortly the Avon and Somerset police will be introducing equipment which will monitor the movement of vehicles, and assessing whether the driver of the vehicle is drunk depending upon its movements. Surely this has to be a step in the right direction?

Erk, I didnt post the spy Camera Link..... here it is; http://www.spycameracctv.com

Your article is very interesting however it contains one inaccurate statement;

"These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites."

This doesn't make sense. GPS satellite don't monitor anything, they broadcast signals which allow ground based receivers to determine a location.

@ Ian - That statement is being quoted from the article in The Independent newspaper.