By Andy McCue, 18 January 2006 16:40
NEWS
Police will be able to store and search data captured by the proposed national automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera network for at least two years, the government has revealed.
The government announced plans last year to develop a national network of thousands of cameras that will automatically scan car number plates and check them against police databases.
Police forces will keep that data in a "live, searchable system" for two years, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).
The Acpo guidance states: "This period of retention is to facilitate the searching of that data on a case-by-case basis, should a crime committed during the deployment come to light during that two-year period. In exceptional circumstances there may be operational grounds to justify retention of ANPR data beyond the two-year period."
Home Office minister Paul Goggins said the Acpo guidance complies with all the relevant data-protection legislation.
He told MPs this week: "This document covers the European Convention for Human Rights. Data Protection, the Regulatory Investigative Powers Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to the police use of ANPR (excluding speed enforcement devices) and is applicable to all police forces in England and Wales."
A £15m pilot of the technology is currently underway although the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has been criticised in the past for providing the police with large numbers of incorrect records and data.
The new strategy lays out plans for a national network of ANPR-enabled cameras and a national centre to analyse the intelligence collected, and police claim it will help them drive criminals off the roads.
Comments
There are 23 comments. Join the discussion
1. Carl Maycock
Can somebody explain to me what our data protection laws actually protect us from ? From what I can tell every piece of legislation that allows people to hold data on us is doesn't contravene the data protection laws. People seem to access to any bit of data on us that they like. It seems to be some empty statement these days. If these laws allow more access than they deny then quite frankly what' s the point of having them ?
2. anonymous
The real big brother is here, now.
Whilst I have no difficulty with it being used to track criminals, how long before it is used to produce circumstancial evidence against someone by a police force under pressure to get a conviction?
3. Simon
It seems that Data Protection laws are there to protect us from ... er ... well ... I guess it excluded ANYTHING the government wants to do !
4. anonymous
As usual the criminals will simply use fake number plates but wo betide the average man in the street if they are a week late renewing their tax disc. There is no substitue for stopping suspect vehicles, it has caught many criminals in the past including the yorkshire ripper and a camera cannot do that. Technology doesn't fight crime as criminals work around it. Technology can enforce rules which is what this will do but stop telling us it will fight crime because it wont
5. concerned citizen
Sounds like a recipe for a blackmarket busines in stolen and cloned number plates.
Anyone with half a brain will soon work out that if you want to run a car with no Tax/Insurance/MOT or are engaged in some other form of illegal activity that you need to steal the identity of a legitimate vehicle similar to the one you are using. The innocent party will then have to prove they are not guilty of any offences committed by the driver of the clone vehicle. I am sure that, as with speed cameras, the electronic evidence will be assumed to be correct.
Number plates are far too insecure to be used as a form of identification. They are too easy to steal and simple to copy.
6. Chris Goodman
And just who pays for yet another nationwide network of cameras, related computer systems and, ABOVE ALL, the cost of manpower for it.
It seems to me to be an extremely expensive way, to both the individual taxpayer and the national economy in general, to crack a peanut with a sledge hammer.
I just fail to see any worthwhile benefits (unless there is a hidden agenda for additional uses) of installing such a nationwide system.
And what has it to do with ACPO anyway? They are an association for exchange of information and views and have not been given authority by Parliament to make policy decisions in any form or manner.
7. Roy Corneloues
For once I cannot see what all the fuss is about. Number plates are there for all to see. It's not as if someone has asked to see your car registration documents and copied them. They are visible for a reason and that is to make sure the car is being driven legally when checked by the police.
We all complain about higher insurance premiums which are caused by varying factors including the number of illegal cars on the road - no tax, no insurance, no MOT, etc.
We all complain when our premiums go up but also at the same time when the government tries to do something about it.
We already know that these databases are tied together at the back end. Try taking out an insurance policy online, enter a registration and it will tell you what make, model and colour the car is...
Of course, if premiums don't come down once these people are driven from the roads (excuse pun), then I'll be up in arms...
8. Steve
I presume the two-year retention period starts from the time/date that the system captures the data. As it seems likely that every vehicle will be 'caught' on camera more than once in a two year period, the data will never be deleted from the system. A national grid will also facilitate calculation of speeds by reference to two images captured a known distance and time apart. So much for 'driving criminals off the road' - as ever, it's about raising revenue.
9. Alan Butcher
Actually I heard they were trying to keep everything on record for 5 years, the infrastructure already planned for.
This is too scary, all sorts of injustice being done by the government on the back of "anti terrorist" measures and has to STOP!
10. T Cook
This is Electronic Tags for the entire adult population.
11. anonymous
Are we now living in a Communist State?
Does this new database mean that we could buying a car with a criminal record?
Once again Labour should think very carefully before spending more tax payers money.
Its also very worrying Ken Livingston has been extremely quiet recently what he saving up for?
12. anonymous
It isn't easy to get a fake...
...number plate, despite all your fears.
You have to go *all the way* to Halfords and pay £10...
Everything already said is true.
Many criminals use fake plates; this just ensures they ALL will...
There is definitely a hidden agenda here. And I suspect innocent motorists are at the top of it...
13. Bill Citrine
Eventually there will be a record of the location of every legitimate UK registered car at any given time. The police can already trace the owner of a car in less than 2 minutes via the number plate. Now they'll be able to track the movements of a car (including previous owners) for the previous 2 or more years - of course this is going to useful to them and I don't really have a problem with it.
However, I don't believe the system is being installed with "crime" detection or prevention as priority. There'll be other more sinister controlling and revenue raising reasons for its existence. The data collected over time will be used to legislate car usage (make, age, insurance group, mileage etc.), road tolls... and speeding fines of course!
14. anonymous
How about spending the money on something worthwhile like education and the NHS rather than on a police state
15. Dave Nash
Get drivers who fail to adhere to the driving laws off the road by all means - however do i want a record of all my travels (quite legal) to be held by police? It seems that this is one more way for the government (any government, because once in place these systems are never removed) to keep tabs on its citizens. What safeguards are in place to ensure the correct use of this data by the correct people? Seems an ideal way for the security service to track vehicles belonging to someone on their increasingly long lists of people those in power don't quite like!
16. Nigel Perry
Lovely if it is used to catch people who do harm. The danger is: it will make prosecution so easy that (as with safely exceeding an arbitrary speed limit) the urge to invent a new crime to fit the detection system may prove irresistible to the parasitic control freaks who migrate into such fields of endeavour, in which case: having done nothing either harmful or inconsiderate will be no defence. Be very firm about what is legitimate use of the data.
17. James Button
Not much use unless the police do something about cloning.
There was a case that made national TV a short while ago where somebody who was getting regularly 'fined' for not paying the London congestion charge couldn't get the police to take any action about the cloned vehicle.
She had to drive to London, find the clone of her car - parked in the area within which it was usually reported and get the TV people to picture and show on national TV, her registered vehicle parked alongside the clone.
-
And I still didn't hear of any effective action being taken against the clone user, or even the cloned vehicle being removed to a pound.
Me - an honest motorist, If I leave my car on the single yellow lines at the end of the road where I live, for 10 minutes more than the permitted time - then I have to collect it from the pound.
18. V Wagen
A family car last registered heading for the Dover ferry terminal, perhaps 100+ miles from it's registered address. How long before this sort of information is sold on by bent admin staff to potential house thieves?
19. James Button
Combine this database with mobile phone records -
Where both calling, and called phones and phone billing information will be recorded
And the police can combine them together with vehicle plates, Insurance details, and then together with the ability to force you to say, and prove who was driving a vehicle at what time, to avoid liability.
Then you can expect lots of points on your licence, some nice (for the revenue, and council area where it's been parked recently) fines, together with a driving ban.
And all because:
You didn't tell the police who nicked car and phone.
And you still have to prove who was driving your vehicle at the times they quote.
Oh! and don't expect the vehicle to be impounded without the advisory letter taking long enough to get to you for the vehicle to have already been auctioned off to pay the impounding costs.
20. anonymous
As the victim of cloned number plates, and having had to go to some significant expense to prove that it was neither me nor my car that was involved in a particular event.
All I can say is that we have nothing to gain and everything to loose from this.
21. anonymous
See what cars Members of Parliament own and drive , and clone their registration Numbers onto similar cars , and let the bastards be hoisted on their own petards.
22. PHil
Only 2 years ?? what like the 24000 DNA samples they keep forever ... and oh we forgot to tell you ..
'eveni'n all, I say that nummer plate looks a bit dodgy dunnit Sarge ? yeah got letters and evry fing, Cuff 'im and get 'is DNA pronto , you villain your nicked chummy .... but not in the real world eh??
23. Mike
Police State? - Now you are all worked up about it: and rightly so! What are you going to do about it?
Are you going to VOTE for a candidate, representing a party, which has freedom and liberty, up front in all their policies.
Labour - nearly as authoritarian as Stalin!, Conservatives not much better! So you need the smaller parties and hope you can get enough in to prevent any party having an overall majority!!