POLICE STATE

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North Wales Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, is pushing through plans to create a national network of roadside spy cameras that will be able to track the movements of motorists around the clock. He wants the cameras to be installed every 400 yards on motorways, as well as at supermarkets, petrol stations and in town centres. They are designed to crack down on uninsured driving, road tax evasion and stolen cars, but will also monitor millions of law-abiding drivers.

Mr Hughes, head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said, “Where we install CCTV systems, we will also install ANPR. There are lots of plans to use all the existing camera systems we can. The aim is to deny criminals the use of the roads.” An Acpo strategy document makes the suggestion that every ANPR “intercept officer” should aim to issue at least 310 fixed-penalty notices a year. Details of any vehicle passing a camera will be stored in a database for at least two years, even if the owner has not committed an offence. (Source: Times Online)

When businesswoman Felicity Elphick attended a public meeting about the treatment of drivers by North Wales police, she wanted to speak up for the hardpressed motorists she felt were being treated like "hooligans". So she was amazed when a senior policeman said her comments were "highly discriminatory" and could have "sinister racial undertones". He warned of the threat of a "swift police response" should she repeat them. Now the mother-of-three is so angered by the suggestion she made racist remarks, an allegation which does not appear to be supported by a videotape of the event, she is considering legal action against the force.

North Wales chief constable Richard Brunstrom, who once branded speeding drivers "anti-social criminals", has championed the excessive use of speed cameras. Meanwhile burglaries in his force area have soared by 33%. It was with this in mind that Mrs Elphick, from Llandudno, a prospective MEP for the Conservative Party, went to the meeting organised by the North Wales business community.

Representing the police was Inspector Alan Hughes, project manager of Mr Brunstrom's controversial Arrive Alive scheme, who told the meeting he had recently served on Caia Park, a deprived housing estate with a multi-racial population just outside Wrexham. A video of the event, taken by organisers, shows Mrs Elphick telling Insp Hughes, "I appreciate very much the sort of work you have to do in Caia Park.

It's an area that we both know is pretty hard work. But I would beg you not to put the rest of us in the same category as the people you had to deal with in Caia Park. The majority of people in here are upright, upstanding, good honest citizens and I know there are one or two like that in Caia Park. But I have to say if you only left Caia Park six months ago you could stand the danger of judging us all by the same. We are not hooligans and we are not fast drivers."

Insp Hughes retorts, "I dare say the people of Caia Park will object to what you say. You are treating them as undesirable: in fact my mother still lives at Caia Park." Mrs Elphick replies, "No, I did say there are people who are decent, I'm not condemning everyone." However the officer replies, "I'm from Caia Park myself and I object to being called a yob." Mrs Elphick then insists, "I never said the word yob." But two weeks later she was astonished to receive a letter accusing her of telling Insp Hughes, "You're not dealing with the people of Caia Park here, these are middle-class business people".

In the letter, addressed to Mrs Elphick at Llandudno's Conservative Party offices, Assistant Chief Superintendent Geraint Anwyl wrote, "It is my considered view that your brief contribution to what was an open debate on policing was at best grossly offensive and highly discriminatory. At worst it could be described as having sinister racial undertones." The senior officer added, "In the event of further similar inflammatory conduct you can be assured of a swift police response".

But Mrs Elphick, whose husband Colin, is equally furious, insisted she was drawing a distinction between the type of policing needed on a deprived housing estate with well documented social problems and that for drivers. Caia Park, formerly known as Queen's Park, made the news in the summer of 2003 when trouble flared between Iraqi Kurds and local youths, leading to rioting and 80 arrests. Mrs Elphick said, "If they think they have got the sort of powet to throw that at an ordinary person they are very wrong. But the thought that they can send a letter like that is very worrying.

Somebody said to me after reading it that all they need is some black boots and a cap and you've got the Hitler Youth. I went along in my capacity as a private citizen concerned at the treatment of motorists. I don't know how they found out I was connected to the Conservative Party but they clearly went to some trouble. I know what I was trying to get across and it was certainly not racism. What I was trying to say is that sort of policing that is required for an area like Caia Park, a deprived area known to have social problems, is not the same as policing drivers going at 38mph."

A North Wales police spokeswoman would only say, "Mrs Elphick has received the appropriate response to her distasteful comments." Matt Nixson

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