AUTOMATIC NUMBER PLATE RECOGNITION

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The average motorist has the details of 250 of their journeys stored on the Government’s vehicle surveillance database. The records, which include photographs of private cars, can be secretly handed by ministers to the governments of other European countries or the United States. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act disclosed that 7.6 billion entries are currently stored on the police ANPR database. The database is constantly fed pictures and details of journeys by Britain’s 31 million motorists as they drive past thousands of cameras across the country.

It was also disclosed that the records can be stored “for as long as is operationally necessary”. It was previously thought most were destroyed after a month and none was kept for more than five years. Civil liberties campaigners called for the system to be scaled back and for a one-month limit on storing records. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it was “in discussions” with chief police officers over reducing the limit. ANPR was originally developed in the 1990s to monitor traffic and congestion charging. However under the Labour government it was gradually adapted for policing and anti-terrorism surveillance.

The police initially developed its own network of roadside and mobile cameras to detect stolen cars, uninsured drivers and unpaid road tax through checks against the Police National Computer. Since then thousands of traffic and CCTV cameras in city centres, airports, petrol stations and elsewhere have been connected to the police network to combat terrorism. Police helicopters have also had the devices installed. The newly released documents disclose that more than 4,000 cameras a week pass images and data on journey times and locations to a central computer in Hendon, north London.

The system, which is operated by Home Office officials, currently records about 14 million licence plates a day. Almost all police forces in England and Wales are connected. In 2008 it emerged Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary, had signed a “special certificate” allowing data to be sent outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to anti-terrorism authorities in the US and elsewhere. Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International, described the situation as “a classic case of ‘function creep’.”

He said, “The system was originally designed to be a traffic management system. It has quickly become a policing tool and national security device. Who knows what it will be used for next? The technology must be scaled down, and the period for which the data can be retained should be brought down to a month. The Government has never made a case for why it needs to be kept longer than this.” The ICO spokesman said, “Following a complaint about the length of time ANPR data can be held, we have been in discussions with the Association of Chief Police Officers about reducing it.”

In recent years Mr Clegg has said the system “poses a threat to personal privacy”. He accused the last Government of being "happy to hand over potentially huge amounts of information on British citizens under the catch-all pretext of 'national security'." A spokesman for the Home Office said, "The new coalition government is very clear that it will protect civil liberties." (Source: Daily Telegraph, Jun/10)

High-powered cameras capable of reading number plates from several thousand feet up have been bought by five police forces. Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the Met are among forces who have invested in the technology which is already used in America, Canada, Norway and Luxembourg. The cameras can calculate whether a motorist is breaking the speed limit, with the information being transmitted from a helicopter to the police control centre on the ground.

Any hope the motorist might have of escaping the prying eye in the sky is slim, especially with Wescam, the Canadian manufacturers, developing a device capable of working at night. A number of forces have expressed interest in this technology. The use of military hardware is the latest evidence of the importance Government and police forces attach to monitoring motorists. In the short term, tracking drivers is seen as important in the Government's campaign to cut the number of road deaths. It will also be essential if "pay by the mile" road pricing is introduced in Britain.

Surveillance of motorists will be stepped up with the Government planning a sharp increase in the number of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras. They will run alongside the existing network of closed circuit television cameras on main roads and in town centres. Ministers have still to decide whether the ANPR network is to be self-financing, with the money it raises from fines being invested in more equipment. Some within Whitehall believe that the Government will step back from this, fearing it could provoke the same level of outrage as speed cameras.

Cameras are only one tool in what is becoming an increasingly sophisticated armoury. The European Commission wants every car built from 2009 to have an electronic chip under the bonnet. The chips will be read either by devices on roadside gantries or possibly by satellite. This will help police track down, and, if technology allows, slow down, stolen cars or vehicles used by criminals. The devices could also be used to charge motorists should they be obliged to pay for road usage.

Ministers in Britain are also considering proposals that cars should be equipped with black box data recorders similar to those used on aircraft which would enable the police to piece together events leading up to a road accident. But it is not only police and the authorities who are using technology to track motorists. Norwich Union has installed black boxes in a number of cars. Linked to global positioning satellites they enable policy holders' premiums to be based on their driving patterns. (Source: Daily Telegraph, Mar/06)

Police have confirmed that forces in England and Wales are passing up to 14m reads per day from automatic number plate recognition cameras to a national database. All but two of England and Wales' police forces are passing data to the National ANPR Data Centre, run by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). ACPO told GC that the centre is currently taking data from 10,502 ANPR enabled cameras. Forces use their own equipment, but also take data from converted CCTV cameras run by local authorities. It added that the centre is currently recording 10m to 14m number plates per day, although it has the capacity for 50m.

The number plate data, including tightly cropped images of the plates, is held by the centre for two years. ACPO said it has no plans to extend this to five years, a figure cited in earlier police documents about the centre. The ICO said it is still in discussions over the matter. It said, "The ICO recognises that automatic number plate recognition can assist in the detection and prevention of crime. However, it is important that where large amounts of personal information are collected and retained adequate safeguards are in place to protect individuals' privacy."

It added, "Any prolonged retention would need to be clearly justified based on continuing value, not on the mere chance it may come in useful. We are currently speaking with the relevant organisations involved to ensure any retention period proposed is in compliance with the (Data Protection) Act." Some police forces also use their ANPR cameras to capture larger images of drivers and passengers for up to one year, although these are not stored on ACPO's central database. Police forces refuse to disclose the location of their ANPR cameras, although a few systems, such as London's congestion charging cameras, are known to provide such data to the police. (Source: Kable, Feb/10)

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