The Police force will soon be able to monitor our every movement and monitor our journeys on a national level, using a UK wide network of cameras that can automatically register our car number plates each time we pass one.
Using (ANPR), or Automatic Number Plate Recognition system, which can be added to any high resolution CCTV camera, the cameras, will register your cars number plate and feed it back to a central national data base and this information will be kept on file and the data base will build up to form an ongoing record of your movements every time your car passes one of these cameras.
Critics of the system, say personal freedoms are being chipped away and eroded and that this definitely is the first major step towards a “Big Brother” society. However, Kent Police who already use the system, claim the system has produced a 40% increase in arrests, since it started using the technology, saying it therefore proves its usefulness in fighting crime.
What is interesting however little has been said about this, despite it being a really significant invasion into everyone’s private life but it does seem to be just slipping in under the radar, and not too many people seem to be aware of just how obtrusive this system will be. This system is going to record, you, me and in fact everyone that passes an ANPR camera and just like a Tesco’s Club Card that tells Tesco’s the items you prefer to buy and when you visit their stores, the ANPR cameras are effectively, going to tell the Police, everywhere you go, what way you went and how long you stayed there.
Although there seems to be no national outrage at this system, the numbers of people who are aware and fear that their every move will be watched is prompting Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to “look at further legislation” to govern how the technology is being used, for what purpose, and by whom.
We already pay a high price to drive on the roads of Gt. Britain, but this time is going to be in privacy, or rather should I say no privacy. Time after time, those that govern us have shown they can not be trusted to look after sensitive or personal information and as such, do any of us truly believe that at some point, someone who shouldn’t, might just be looking at our movements?
As usual, we are going to do nothing to question this, so its going to happen and indeed some Police forces are already using it, albeit, it only becomes mega effective when the whole country is covered and all of the data is flooding in to the central data base, but to give us all some comfort, John Dean, the coordinator of the network for the Association of Chief Police Officers, claims it is “the finest intelligence-led policing tool we’ve got” because it not only helps monitor and catch criminals, but also improves road safety in general. Silly me, I thought that was the job of a copper?
You decide!
