UK To Passively Monitor Every Vehicle 703
DrSkwid writes "The UK Police are building a network to monitor the movement of every vehicle in the U.K. through an extensive Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. The data will be retained for 2 years. The Register further reports that the system will likely be used for issuing speeding fines." From the article: "The primary aims claimed for the system are tackling untaxed and uninsured vehicles, stolen cars and the considerably broader one of 'denying criminals the use of the roads.' But unless the Times has got the spacing wrong, having one every quarter of a mile on motorways quite clearly means they'll be used to enforce speed limits as well, which would effectively make the current generation of Gatsos obsolete. Otherwise, checking a vehicle's tax and insurance status every 15 seconds or thereabouts would seem overkill."
Re:What's a Gatso? (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatso [wikipedia.org]
Not in America (Score:4, Informative)
No intent proven (Score:4, Informative)
The regularity of the cameras is irrelevant, you only have to know the distance between them, and ensure their clocks are in sync to be able to issue a speeding ticket.
So thinking around the subject:
Re:Quarter miles? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Another reason (Score:5, Informative)
Add to that a CCTV camera on virtually every street corner (hell I even had one pointing at me inside a taxi the other day), the extention to detention without trial (even to 28 days is longer than most common law countries*) & the hair-brained biometric passport & ID card schemes, so now they know exactly what I do and where I go all the time, and want me to pay for it all. Sounds doubleplusgood to me.
*according to the latest private eye.
Re:Why upset (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunatly, it is more likely that the money will be distributed around the various family members of government officials who 'happen' to own services companies who amazingly seem to always win those cushy government contracts.
It is not widely known that the NHS often use private ambulance companies. When my mother was in the hospital I got talking to a few staff at the hospital and they let me on on how much the NHS pays for a 15 min ambulance journey between two London hospitals. It is an absolutely disgusting figure and given that my terminally ill mother was left in a seriously uncomfortable state for hours while she waited for an ambulance I can assure you that we do not get our money's worth.
They will put up speed cameras to generate wealth for a government who tells us that it is a choice between raised 'tax' or lower public spending. Very rarely will they mention the waste that is so pervasive in our public services. I suspect because if anyone were to look into the books to investigate this waste they would find corruption that runs all the way up to downing street.
It is just easier to pretend there isnt a distinction between driving fast and driving dangerously (and I have seen dangerous driving within the speed limit and also quite safe driving above the speed limit). Of course, it is far more difficult to punish dangerous driving using a device that will work 24/7/365 and doesnt require a salary!
Re:Another reason (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I predict... (Score:2, Informative)
That should read British, not English. It's akin to me calling everybody from the USA "Texan". England doesn't have her own government.
Us British get a lot of stick for CCTV and schemes like this. 1984 is always brought up. But schemes like this do not intrude into our homes. We still have privacy. In fact, we have state-protected privacy with laws like the Data Protection Act. Until the government mandates putting CCTV inside every room of every home, your Orwellian analogies just don't hold.
Re:I predict... (Score:2, Informative)
1984 must be for anybody w/out exclusions ! You like it in full or you hate it in full - no tradeoffs.
Re:What's a Gatso? (Score:2, Informative)
Theoretically, you could use physical means, for example, the standard LCD-type lettering, with the bars pressed into a flexible semitransparent plastic of a different color, thus standing out like a "normal" license plate.
Re:A little difference (Score:2, Informative)
And some of us (less pretentious) folks "place an importance to our privacy that sets the need to be not-monitored [anywhere] higher than the need to avoid some crimes that could possibly happen."
On the other hand, our behavior in public places is already monitored by Mrs. Grundy, so having a camera filming us in those circumstances will not make much difference in our personal sense of privacy.
Yeah, because having a nosy neighbor is exactly like having hundreds (thousands!) of hours of video footage of you stored away in digital format. Having a person see you walk down the street is exactly like having a second-by-second record of where you are stored in some government computer.
Forget the diagram, you're off the map.
Re:Whose problem? This is just a power play. (Score:4, Informative)
The British government has proposed a "National Corriculum" for Under 5 year olds and in a year when there are riots in Paris. (The Paris uprising in 1968 was because the teaching curriculum was too rigid).
And if you don't support him, you must be an Al Quaida suporter. A member of his own party was arrested at the party conference for pointing out that Jack Straw is completely dishonest. He was charged under the Prevention of Terrorism act. However, they want the power to hold people for 90 days with no charge whatever, in case they notice that some other ministers are "economical with the truth".
The words neurotic, obsesssive, compulsive, posessive, paranoid, manic, and several less polite ones come to mind.
The only reason they are in power is because "her majesty's Loyal opposition"'s slogan is "we are the party of convictions" - most have several for corruption, libel, slander, purjury, and other things that normally bar you from high office.
I suspect that the Robert Mugabe's complaints against Blair are fuelled by jelousy over the ease with which these controls are imposed (no need to deport inner city kids to remote Scottish islands, etc).
Who watches the watchers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What's a Gatso? (Score:2, Informative)
Partly speeding and partly seen as an easy source of revenue [bbc.co.uk] for the various boroughs.
Re:It's not the speeding as such... (Score:3, Informative)
Your whole argument was so well written and insightful right up to this point. Why did you have to blemish a perfectly good comment by singling out women drivers. It only weakens your entire comment, which was otherwise very well put.
I've seen plenty of drivers talking on their phones. About 50% of them were women. I've also seen people driving dangerously or too fast. About 90% of them were men.
BUT. I've seen a lot of drivers who drive carefully, curtiously and pragmatically. These constitute about 90% of the drivers on the road. Otherwise you'd never get anywhere with all the collisions.