The Laughing Policemen

According to a leading Sunday newspaper, the police are targeting motorists purely in order to meet performance targets and are laughing all the way to the bank. This already widely held belief is backed up by inside information which reveals that at least 30% of the data stored by the Automatic Number Plate Recognition [ANPR] computers is totally inaccurate. This has in turn, led to numerous instances of wrongful arrest and inappropriate confiscations of vehicles.

So-called 'Soft Crime' has now become a multi million pound industry. Last year, parking fines alone yielded £330m and a further £100m was reaped by the use of ANPR cameras. Of course, motorists are not the only victims of this odious new development. There are increasing instances of on-the-spot fines being handed out for such newly invented offences overloading wheelie bins or even feeding the ducks in the park! Such easy targets currently contribute 12m each year to the pot.

One of the most alarming practices to have emerged recently concerns the engineering of arrests simply in order to boost targets. Drivers collecting vehicles impounded for minor offences were asked whether they had declared their penalties to their insurers. If they hadn't, they were promptly arrested for obtaining insurance fraudulently.

Despite the mantra that "law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear" from the UK-wide surveillance network, many are concerned that the concentration of policing efforts and resources on soft crime must have an adverse affect on the detection and apprehension of real criminals.

ANPR cameras were originally used in counter-terrorism operations in Northern Ireland . They have been a feature of mainland road policing strategies since the early 1990s. Deficiencies in the integrity of the information collated on the computer databases have had some very serious consequences. In 2008 a 16-year-old Northumberland girl was killed by a police car driving recklessly in response to incorrect information.

Whilst there will, inevitably, be abuses of the technology, Hertfordshire's Assistant Chief Constable, Chris Miller maintains that "Many residents have given us very positive feedback on how ANPR is making their communities even safer."

Back to News Index