Britain tracking more motorists
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My note: try: ALL OF THEM
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Video monitoring on highways raises worries over privacy


By Mary Jordan - The Washington Post - Published January 11, 2006

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My note: wow! just check out this first line: "world leader"
how proud does/should that make you?
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LONDON -- Britain, already the world's leader in video surveillance of its people, will soon be able to automatically track the movements of millions of cars on most of its major roads. Law-enforcement agencies are dramatically increasing the number of cameras that read license plates and are building a national database that designers say will make it possible to determine in seconds whether a car zooming by has insurance, was stolen or was seen near a crime scene.


"It will revolutionize policing," said John Dean, the national coordinator of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system. "Our aim is to deny criminals the use of the roads."

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My note: wow! just who will fit your criteria of a criminal? - anyone who doesn't have an ID Card? Can't pay to access digital TV? Protests the Iraq war? wears an anti Blair T-shirt? What?
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The technology is already being used on the M25, which rings London and is the country's busiest road. The system, scheduled to begin operating nationally by June, will employ thousands of cameras on fixed poles or in mobile police vans on major highways, key back roads and vital intersections throughout England and Wales. Dean said the idea is to make it difficult, if not impossible, to travel by road without being captured by the cameras.

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My note: Many have accepted it already = People who oppose are a 'Minority'
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In recent years, the British public has accepted a generally high level of surveillance in public places to counter terrorism and common crime. Thousands of closed-circuit cameras were installed on city streets during the Irish Republican Army's bombing campaigns.

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My note: human-rights groups pro IRA? pro terrorist?
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Some human-rights groups are fighting the new project, calling it a dangerous step toward a Big Brother society. "We believe it is a gross invasion of privacy," said Douglas Jewell, campaigns coordinator for Liberty, a human-rights organization. "We don't have a problem with surveillance cameras when they are used appropriately. But the idea of establishing a massive national database that will record ordinary people's journeys and whereabouts is troubling."

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My Note: Police stress 'computers' 'databases' 'textbook' trying to assert the system is failsafe
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Each of the system's cameras, backed up by computers that read numbers from their images, can monitor 3,600 license plates per hour, Dean said. That information is immediately cross-referenced with a police database of plates registered to people suspected of breaking the law.


Cameras in action


Police Inspector Paul Moor said that a "textbook" example of how the system works occurred Nov. 24, when police were parked on the shoulder of the A13 highway 20 miles east of London. Their van had a camera to scan passing license plates and computer equipment to check for numbers linked to criminal suspects.

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My Note: look !!!! CCTV stops druggies!
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Moor said that two seconds after a 1998 Volvo station wagon passed, the computer's alert system announced: "Attention: no insurance." Having no insurance is a crime in England, and Moor, who was in the van, radioed to officers down the road. When they tried to pull over the Volvo, Moor said, it sped away. The officers pursued it. Ultimately, Moor said, six police cars converged on the Volvo, and officers found a bag containing $180,000 worth of heroin.

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My Note: look !!!! CCTV stops pedo's too
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In another case, Dean said, witnesses noted the plate number of a car they saw leaving the scene of a child's abduction. The next day, an ANPR camera detected the car. When police stopped it, they found the missing child in the trunk. "It's tremendous; it is one of the best tools we have had in years," Moor said.

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My Note: So Human rights are for pro drug pedo's, right?!
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But Jewell, the human-rights activist, said the system will enable police to "build profiles of people" and their movements even though they have committed no crime. He said few people are happy about "being tracked all day."

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My Note: it's a $1 billion-a-year business, oppose this you could be stopping people getting a job...that means feeding their children, you terrorist child abuser, you!
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People in Britain are already monitored by more than 4 million closed-circuit, or CCTV, cameras, making it the most watched nation in the world, according to Liberty. The group said that a typical London resident is monitored 300 times a day. Cameras keep an eye out throughout the London subway and bus system, on streets, in stores and around public buildings. The closed-circuit camera industry has quadrupled in a decade and is now a $1 billion-a-year business, according to the British Security Industry Association, a trade group.

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My Note: oh yeah LONDON BOMBS!
- if you oppose this you are on side with the terr'ists - that'll scare 'em woooo! innocent people were killed because YOU didn't have or want cameras
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Photos of bombers


The extent of London's CCTV network became well known after bombs exploded in three subway cars and a bus last July. Fifty-two passengers were killed in addition to four bombers, and more than 700 people were injured; a similar attempt two weeks later failed when the attackers' bombs failed to detonate. Almost immediately, police were able to release still photos of men suspected of carrying out the bombings. CCTV had captured them in the subway system and on the bus.

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hang on a minute...er no... actually! on 7th July the CCTV camera system mysteriously weren't working on the bus...and there was only 2 pictures released asserting these were the bombers

There were 2 shots one of Hasib Hussein entering on his own - and a group shot

this is the freely available MET photo
source:  http://www.met.police.uk/news/terrorist_attacks/groupcctv.jpg

later CCTV bus / tube photos were released of a so-called dry run...and of the second fake bombers from the 21st July
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My Note: resistance is futile:
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Britain also has huge numbers of speed- and traffic-enforcement cameras. These spot drivers speeding, making illegal turns or driving into the center of London without paying a $14 fee meant to discourage the use of private cars on crowded streets. Violators discover that they have been caught only when fine notices arrive in their mailboxes.

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My Note: employment angle again
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Police said the ANPR system originated with police efforts to track the movement of IRA bombers in Britain. It can now store information on the movement of cars for two years and soon may be able to do it for five. This year, officials said, more than $20 million has been allocated for the new system. That does not include the much larger cost of paying the people who run it.

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My Note: but everyone else is doing it! you'll miss out to what you're entitled to!
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"It's not that technology is better here," Dean said, it is that Britain has chosen to invest in it and dedicate police to intercept cars that trip alerts, which differs from approaches used by other countries. He said FBI officials asked him about the ANPR system Tuesday, and officials from Australia, Canada and many European countries have also inquired about it. Dean said he understands that the widespread public use of closed-circuit cameras is "not as readily accepted in the United States" and other countries. He knows critics call it an Orwellian invasion of privacy. But he said he believes "people are entitled to security."

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My Note: cut & paste generic passer-by - loving big brother
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Raymond Ajakaiye, 26, a graduate student in international business in London, said he didn't mind the widening use of surveillance cameras. He was interviewed as he rode a train on the subway's Jubilee Line, where he was filmed on CCTV cameras. "It only bothers people who have something negative in mind," he said. "I say, if it makes the city safer, go ahead." - chicago tribune