Spy Blog - SpyBlog.org.uk

Yes, it might be illegal now, but if it is, the government will bring in some sort of legislation or other device to legalise it. After all, ANPR might catch criminals - so it absolutely must be a good thing - mustn't it ?

Remember that ANPR is a massive invasion of our privacy, perhaps one of the biggest yet, and certainly on the same scale as the faltering ID card scheme. However, it's being implementated at a rapid pace across the country with virtually no public discussion. I bet 99% of the population haven't a clue about what's going on here.

This is another thing where; if enough people disobey the law then it is completely and utterly useless. They recon that 1 in 10 vehicles on the roads are "illegal". If a database flags up that many vehicles then the police could not cope. I go out of my way to throw up false positives on databases. It is up to the public to make sure that if they cannot fight it, then they can screw it up as much as possible.

Still the whole thing needs to be declared illegal along with the sickening NeoLabour Government.

ANPR has been trialled and proved to be a successful tool in the fight against national crime. Indeed, wern't these cameras invaluable when used whilst tracking down the identity of the 7/7 suicide bombers? Used correctly, these cameras will assist the Police in their duty. They'll also alienate the public against the Police as they'll be seen as being "too good at their job" and catching those of us that think we can get away with motoring offences.
Let's get the legislation and the welfare issues sorted out for ANPR and get them up and running and placed on every main road in the country.

@ Cath - there are few objections to the use of ANPR to help mobile, roadside police patrols who are actually stopping and checking vehicles on the spot.

There are huge potential problems with converting the thousands of existing public CCTV cameras on the roads, to also do ANPR lookups and with the creeping creation of the National ANPR Database, which has already started.

There has been no public debate on this policy, and there are huge privacy risks and also security risks. especially where there is joint police / private sector control of such systems.

ANPR played no significant part in the 7th of July 2005 bomb investigations, and, obviously, like all the other masses of CCTV systems, had zero deterrent effect on the murderers.

@Cath Restrictions on drivers are mostly WRONG.

If you cannot accept that then you deserve the interference from government in other parts of your life.

Do you seriously think that car insurance is a good thing? If it were up to me, I would ban it altogether and use some of the money taken in fuel taxes as 3rd party liability but only to be used if the claim was for personal injury. That way everybody would be responsible for their own actions when using the roads instead of passing that responsability onto somebody else and making the government a whole load of cash in the first place.

Anyway, it's people like me that they are after. Believe me, I will always find a way around the system no matter how complicated you make it. Once I have found it, I will tell everyone else how to get around it. Once they legislate agains it I will find a new way, and the circle begins once more. The great thing is that each and every time, they are dealing with that little bit more data.

Even if I have to become a dealer and buy, sell and use different cars on a weekly basis, which is something that will help to make me a profit as well as evade ANPR. There is no way that I will let them win.

The police are now my enemy. I will not help them no matter what the circumstances are. Furthermore I will do everthing in my power to keep them off the road doing paperwork for as long as possible. (FOI Requests where traffic police operational duty statistics are requested are good for this one). I will not report anything I see to the police, nor would I ever consider assisting a police officer in trouble. If I am ever unfortunate enough to go before a court then I will drag it out as long as possible just to cost them more in money and time than they can possibly hope to make in a fine. Then I would evade the fine for as long as possible.

This was not always the case, but motoring law and its enforcement has driven me to take this stance.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=17443461%26method=full%26siteid=109975%26headline=nowhere%2dto%2dhide%2d-name_page.html

Teesside now has a "ring of steel". 50 ANPR cameras switched on today.

How did some git from Cleveland Police justify it? Well get this - If you're on holiday and your car is stolen you might not know about it until you get home. But our system will have been monitoring its movements while you've been away. We can tap in its numberplate and find out where its been, and maybe even where it is now. Aren't we bloody marvellous. Er, no! You are a bunch of parasites squandering council tax payers money (650,000 in this case + the same each year running costs) on mass surveillance of the worst kind.

@ A Tench - note how the two types of ANPR are conflated together in this story.

The successes of mobile ANPR teams actually stopping suspect vehicles on the roadside is to be welcomed.

Mass surveillance of every innocent vehicle from 50 fixed camera locations, with no associated roadside police patrols, simply for "intelligence" or snooping purposes is evil, and, according to the Chief Surveillance Commissioner, probably illegal.

What access to the Police National Computer and local police intelligence databases do the non-police local council CCTV operators have ? Surely this is increases the risk from stalkers and the opportunities for corruption ?

How long before the serious criminals simply make even more use of false or number plates, leaving just the amateur criminals the innocent motorist to be snooped on ?