Britain to be the first country to monitor every car journey

[Ripsnort]

Good? Bad? Indifferent?

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.

Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.

Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into the central databank.

Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.

But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.

The new national data centre of vehicle movements will form the basis of a sophisticated surveillance tool that lies at the heart of an operation designed to drive criminals off the road.

In the process, the data centre will provide unrivalled opportunities to gather intelligence data on the movements and associations of organised gangs and terrorist suspects whenever they use cars, vans or motorcycles.

The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have sanctioned the spending of £24m this year on equipment.

More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read number plates automatically. The data will then be transmitted to Hendon via a secure police communications network.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Bad. Certainly some jeanyus US politicians will entertain the idea.
-SW

[lazs2]

doesn't germany allready have cameras all over the autobaun?   Doesn't japan have a revolving light that comes on if a truck speeds?

Don't we allready have laws that say no tinting the windows so that cops can see if you are wearing your seat belt or not?

Laws that say we have to have our lights on when the windshield wipers are on?

laws that say that everyone has to get out of their cars every half hour and stand on one foot while patting their head with the oppossite hand?  (maybe that one isn't law just yet)

And why do they do it?  just because.... they can.  "oooh ooh  I bet we can make em do this"

lazs

[SOB]

Indifferent.  I don't care what they do in Britain.  I just hope our brilliant politicians don't get any ideas...fortunately, we have bit more square mileage to cover.

BTW...Your link goes to "State Population Estimates in 2005", not the story you quoted.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by SOB
Indifferent.  I don't care what they do in Britain.  I just hope our brilliant politicians don't get any ideas...fortunately, we have bit more square mileage to cover.

BTW...Your link goes to "State Population Estimates in 2005", not the story you quoted.

Doh! Thanks...fixed.

[cpxxx]

I think it's sinister. Remember George Orwell's  book '1984' was written in Britain. So it has come to pass.  From now on the police in Britain will be able to keep watch on everyone.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by cpxxx
I think it's sinister. Remember George Orwell's  book '1984' was written in Britain. So it has come to pass.  From now on the police in Britain will be able to keep watch on everyone.

Aye.  Beet won't be able to speed in his Audi anymore either.

[mora]

Originally posted by SOB
fortunately, we have bit more square mileage to cover.

No problem at all. You could just install a transponder to every vehicle.

[midnight Target]

Any true American who supports the Patriot Act would be all for this .. I mean, if you don't break the law, you got nothing to worry about... right?

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Heh.
-SW

[mora]

You are allready monitored because you have licence plates, driving licences and MVR. This is just a little automatization. It wouldn't reguire any law change, or would it?

Not that I like it at all, but I'm 100% sure that it will be reality all over the world in 10 years.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by midnight Target
Any true American who supports the Patriot Act would be all for this .. I mean, if you don't break the law, you got nothing to worry about... right?

[FUNKED1]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Good? Bad? Indifferent?

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

Holy crap.  1984 is now.

[Maverick]

Britain has already come to the realization that it's subjects cannot be trusted. They must therefore be monitored constantly lest they get any ideas to do anything not considered proper by the authorities. If they start to drive too far or to areas they should not be allowed near they can be apprehended later at the governments pleasure. After all, the subjects are there merely to provide for the states welfare. Long live the State.




Mora,

Wrong assumption there. Your license and registration do not provide day to day monitoring of where and when you go somewhere.

[StSanta]

Originally posted by mora
You are allready monitored because you have licence plates, driving licences and MVR. This is just a little automatization. It wouldn't reguire any law change, or would it?

Not that I like it at all, but I'm 100% sure that it will be reality all over the world in 10 years.

No, you are registered, but not monitored.

It's a huge step really. Instead of just being able to tell that you own a car and may drive it, they now can tell that at 13pm 2006-01-01 you drove from your gay lovers sex dungeon to buy some adult diapers before heading home to your fourth wife.

Now, let some corporations tap into that little tidbit of knowledge. See if they'll hire you.