More than ever we are being watched. Most of us are aware of this but, even so, sometimes the extent of Britain’s surveillance society comes a shock. The movements of millions of motorists are being recorded each day and held on a police database in north London, in the majority of cases without the drivers’ knowledge or permission.
[timesonline.co.uk] The automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system, which has been developed by police as a national system over the past four years, sounds innocuous enough. But it is being used to take up to 14m photographs of vehicles and their occupants each day. In London, cameras that were put up to police the congestion charge are now also accessed by the police for number plate recognition.
The police say ANPR is an invaluable “intelligence-led” tool in the fight against crime and terrorism. Suspicious vehicles, identified by their number plates, can be intercepted. Cars that have no tax, MOT or insurance can be taken off the road, improving safety for others.
The ANPR system gives the police an added weapon in the fight against organised crime, its advocates say. It helped to apprehend the perpetrators of the attempted bombings in the West End of London and the car bomb attack at Glasgow airport that occurred days after Gordon Brown became prime minister in 2007.
As always, however, there is a balance between surveillance and security and between crime prevention and unacceptable intrusion into people’s lives. Civil rights campaigners argue that in this case the balance has tilted too far.
Part of the problem is that the system has grown up by stealth. Not only are most motorists unaware of it, but so are parliamentarians. “It’s bad enough that images and movements of millions of innocent motorists are being stored for years on end,” said Shami Chakrabarti, director Liberty, the civil rights group. “That the police are doing this with no legislative basis shows a contempt for parliament, personal privacy and the law.”
Liberty has made itself available to fight a legal challenge on behalf of any motorist who objects to having his or her movements tracked and stored on what it describes as ANPR’s “bloated” database.
Things may change in other respects. Apart from the impending legal challenge, ANPR could come under greater political scrutiny. Chris Grayling, the Conservative shadow home secretary, says the system needs proper accountability and safeguards. He is right. Surveillance is necessary but it must be done properly. The more it looks like an unnecessary extension of a Big Brother society, the more suspicious people will be.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article7086879.ece
