TRAFFIC CAMERAS TO ENFORCE ESSEX’s ‘RING OF STEEL’

Automated number plate recognition systems are now spreading across the UK as more public authorities and commercial and private action groups employ them to track vehicles as well as people.  The trend is becoming increasingly controversial as concern grows about potential infringements of civil liberties and rights to privacy.

Britain has more closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) than any other country – perhaps around five million, with about half a million in London alone. Many of these cameras have automated number plate recognition (ANPR) capabilities feeding over 50 million sightings every day into the national police database network.  The rate of camera surveillance will escalate with security measures surrounding the 2012 Olympics.

The Hertfordshire town of Royston typifies fears that Britain is becoming “a database state” with its plan to become the country’s first ‘ring of steel’ community.  Hidden cameras covering all routes in and out of the town will photograph the number plates of every vehicle so that the registration details of anyone who drives through Royston can be captured and stored in a database for up to five years.

The joint venture involving the police, district council and local community interests will, it is claimed, make Royston “the safest town in Hertfordshire”.

There is already a very sophisticated CCTV system monitoring vehicles entering and leaving key parts of Belfast, while Medway Borough Council in Kent is among local authorities using cars fitted with CCTV to catch parking violations.

MOTORISTS ON ESSEX ‘RAT RUN’ TARGETED

A camera scheme being considered in South Woodford, Essex will identify vehicles using a “rat run” through a residential area.  As many as 7,000 vehicles a day are ignoring “No Access” signs to use the short cut.  Local residents say the cameras will stop this traffic damaging their health and endangering their families.

Police in Scotland and other parts of the UK are even evaluating pilotless drones adapted from Army  camera-carrying aircraft used in Afghanisatan.

Senior UK police offices have formed the Unmanned Aerial Systems Steering Group to co-ordinate their drone plans.  Some members favour remote-controlled helicopters like those being tested in Merseyside, others think that a better system is having CCTV cameras and infra red imaging in drones flying at 20,000 feet and invisible from the ground.

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But the main emphasis remains on terrestial cameras, including mobile units which are so sophisticated that hundreds of license plates can be scanned in minutes from moving police cars. Mobile systems  now being introduced into the UK have already become widespread in the USA, generating millions of dollars in revenue from motorists who have learned how to avoid getting trapped by fixed cameras.

ANPR CAUSING AS WELL AS SOLVING CRIMES

But there is growing evidence from the UK and internationally that number plate recognition technology is fuelling crime as well as helping to solve it.

“Number plate theft is rising and the manufacture and sale of fake plates has become big business,” warns Des Elton, CEO of Speedyreg.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading official suppliers of cherished and personalised vehicle registration numbers, with the official plates to go with them.  “Police are warning motorists to take precautions against their plates being stolen and the Internet teems with advertisements for illegal plates and sprays and other devices claiming to stop plates being read by surveillance cameras.

“As the use of cameras spreads, so problems are increasing of vehicles being wrongly identified because their plates do not conform to the British Standard, or legal plates are misread, or data is wrongly recorded and processed because of problems with databases, particularly as a result of public sector cutbacks affecting how well the data is maintained.”

He points also to ingenious new ways of tricking cameras.  In the USA, students have engaged in what they call the “Speed Camera Pimping Game”, a kind of number plate bullying in which teachers and other targets have their number plates copied and fixed to vehicles in which the students deliberately commit traffic offences.

PROTECT YOUR NUMBER PLATES

Having distinctive numbers potentially reduces the risk of plates being stolen or cloned because thieves want anonymity for the vehicles used to commit crimes.  Motorists who have purchased cherished personalised numbers or receive them as gifts also tend to be more aware of their plates and notice quickly if they have been stolen or tampered with.

“Nowadays all vehicle owners need to be conscious of their number plates and regard them as a precious asset to be protected, just like credit cards,” says Mr. Elton.  “At least follow the police advice and fit anti-theft screws, which we supply automatically to all our clients because they just make good sense.”

This picture is typical of those taken by Medway council’s CCTV spy cars chasing parking violations.

When your number plates are captured on a camera linked to the UK’s National ANPR Data Centre in Hendon, north London, the information is shared with the nearby Police National Computer. The data about each vehicle sighting – which may include clear pictures of the driver and front seat passenger – will be stored for five years and can be compared to lists of criminal suspects and vehicles as well as the national DVLA database of car registrations.

This provides sophisticated ways of identifying the whereabouts of vehicles and individuals that the police believe have been involved in crimes. If you were to check over here, you’d know how uninsured drivers are identified from data provided by the insurance industry. Vehicles without a valid MoT test certificate can be tracked down, along with those vehicles without a valid tex disc or illegal number plates.

DATA MINING INVESTIGATIONS

“The National ANPR Data Centre has very sophisticated automated data mining software which can compile remarkably detailed evidence of a vehicle’s movements over an extended period,” says Speedyreg’s Des Elton.  “So your vehicle number plate has become a very important factor in every motorist’s life, particularly if it is stolen or cloned and you become a crime suspect.

“The proliferation of ANPR cameras also means that it is essential to have plates that conform to the British Standard and are issued by a DVLA licensed supplier.  Illegal plates now attract big fines when they are caught by the cameras or police or wardens.  Using screws and other tricks to try to turn ordinary numbers into cherished numbers is just not worth it.  Personalised numbers can cost under £100 – there is an immense choice available.”

You can quickly find out if there is a registration number available for you to personalise your vehicle by accessing Speedyreg’s database of nearly 35 million UK vehicle registrations.  The interface is very easy to use, as this picture from the www.Speedyreg.co.uk demonstrates:

The Speedreg website contains the UK’s largest offering of dateless number plates and is the only DVLA authorised service for the transfer of vehicle registration numbers to offer free credit.

The www.Speedyreg.co.uk website has also a wealth of information about vehicle registrations and how to obtain a cherished number plate business in the UK.  There are several fascinating ebooks on car cloning and other topics that can be downloaded free of charge.