The records not only include details of car registrations, but often photographs of drivers and front-seat passengers, a police document has revealed. They are being held on a database in Hendon, north London, for at least two years without drivers’ knowledge or permission.
The ANPR network has expanded unchecked by parliament since police first decided to develop a national system in 2006. It is now linked to more than 10,000 CCTV cameras discreetly placed on motorways, main roads and in petrol stations. It has also been integrated with the cameras originally set up in 2003 to enforce the congestion charge in London.
Software being developed for the system will eventually allow police to track the movements of up to 100m vehicles at any time — more than double the number currently on the road. The database can also be “mined” to track the past movements of specific vehicles.
Critics argue that mass intrusion into people’s movements may not be “proportionate” and could breach the right to privacy under the Human Rights Act. This weekend Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, the civil rights group, said it planned to launch the first legal challenge to the surveillance system.
“It’s bad enough that images and movements of millions of innocent motorists are being stored for years on end,” she said. “That the police are doing this with no legislative basis shows a contempt for parliament, personal privacy and the law. Yet another bloated database is crying out for legal challenge and we will happily oblige.” Liberty is seeking a motorist of good character who objects to having their daily movements stored on the ANPR database to bring a test case.
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