NO CCTV - Automatic Number Plate Recognition - ANPR/ALPR
Download No CCTV's report "What's Wrong With ANPR ?"
[ ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition (in North America ANPR is known as Automatic License Plate Recognition or ALPR).]
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[ Click here to download the report (PDF) ]
No CCTV's report 'What's Wrong With ANPR?' reveals the civil liberties concerns in relation to the police use of number plate cameras as a mass surveillance tool.
ANPR was first developed and used in the UK but it is now being used worldwide. This issue has global rammifications.
The report looks at the development of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras since they were first deployed in a secret experiment on the M1 in Hertfordshire in the 1980s, through to the still secretive modern network of cameras that is capable of storing the details of 50 million number plates per day.
Number plate recognition cameras have been mis-sold to the public. Back in the 1980s it was claimed that the cameras were developed only to find stolen vehicles. Then as a nationwide network of thousands of cameras was quietly constructed in the early 2000's it was said to be for finding incorrectly registered, untaxed or uninsured vehicles.
However another little noticed use was stated in the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) ANPR Strategy documents, that of tracking vehicle movements. Not just vehicles linked to ongoing criminal investigations but all vehicles, with the information to be stored in national and local databases for two years . This is a mass surveillance tool which was constructed without any public debate.
What is ANPR ?
ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition (in North America ANPR is known as Automatic License Plate Recognition or ALPR
Previous No CCTV articles on ANPR / ALPR:
'Canadian Privacy Commissioner Hits Out At Number Plate Cameras' - 16/11/2012
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/canadian_privacy_commissioner_hits_out_at_number_plate_cameras.htm
'Royston's ANPR "Ring of Steel" - the shape of things to come?' - 13/6/2011
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/roystons_anpr_ring_of_steel_-_the_shape_of_things_to_come.htm
'The Freedom Committee, CCTV / ANPR and the Manufacture of Consent' - 2/5/2011
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/the_freedom_committee_cctv__anpr_and_the_manufacture_of_consent.htm
'Speed Cameras, ANPR and Project Columbus - The expansion of automated checkpoints around the UK - 2/9/2010
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/speed_cameras_anpr_and_project_columbus.htm
'ANPR - policing by consent?' - 25/10/2009
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/anpr_-_policing_by_consent.htm
'ANPR - the expanding network of UK checkpoints' - 15/7/2009
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/anpr_-_the_expanding_network_of_uk_checkpoints.htm
'BrumiLeaks, CCTV and the attempted murder of democracy' - 16/12/2010
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/brumileaks_cctv_and_the_attempted_murder_of_democracy.htm
'ICO's Surveillance Society follow up report - read it and sleep' - 17/11/2010
http://www.no-cctv.org.uk/blog/icos_surveillance_society_follow_up_report_-_read_it_and_sleep.htm
Other articles on ANPR / ALPR:
An excellent article on ANPR, 'Ring of Steel - How the secretive spread of networked surveillance helped turn Britain into one of the world's most watched countries' by James Bridle and SA Mathieson is avilable at https://medium.com/matter/d15b5801b79e/
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