Nice. With the added benefit of providing vehicle tracking information... There's no way they'll abuse that, is there...
"But the new system also raises a lot of questions: What happens in rural areas where there are less cameras?" What, me? Never!
Indeed. The UK has been running a National Vehicle Tracking Database since 2006 that reads 100 million number plates each day and stores their movement for up to 5 years. The Wiki article makes for interesting reading.
Is it not the case whereby every car either has to have a tax disc or be SORNed otherwise they get in contact with you anyway? Or is that insurance I'm thinking of? I know that a few years ago they changed it so that just having the car off the road and not having SORNed it and not having either insurance or a tax disc got you a letter and a fine. I'm all for getting rid of the tax discs by the way - not least because the little tax disc holder constantly falls off my windscreen
This is true and I'm pretty sure they've been using the number plate cams for a while too as a couple of years ago neighbor of mine SORN there car (but left it parked on the road) and took a cheeky trip out into town in it. The following day a DVLA van on a "random check" appeared in our street and ticketed / clamped the car. (I have never before or since seen the DVLA van do a random check anywhere on our estate)
My missus renewed her car tax online yesterday and is not being sent a tax disc. Guess they started not providing paper discs early! With regards to ANPR, it's already everywhere. Pretty much every motorway has multiple installations already and also a large number of major A-roads too. That's in addition to the mobile units in police cars. ANPR cameras aren't in hi-vis yellow boxes like 'safety cameras, so you're highly lightly to pass by one and not even know about it.
I was in the police in 2005. ANPR cams installed in some vehicles, but not the majority. Fixed anpr camera near the roundabout on the main road into town, scanning every vehicle coming in (and possibly going out, not sure). That was 9 years ago, I can only imagine their numbers have increased since.
One thing this removes is the handy bargaining chip when buying a new (secondhand) car - i.e seller loading a few more quid on for 8 months tax, or the buyer haggling when only one is left. One thing I disagree with - as the tax is now non-transferable and the government will only refund a full months tax, they can effectively tax a sold car twice in one month. Say you sell a car on the 15th October, the seller has to fork out the money for tax that month, as does the buyer - government gets paid twice.
ANPR is everywhere now, I don't see the big deal. Even the average speed check cameras put up on temporary roadworks are ANPR (read numberplate going in, read it going out, check time between two and calculate speed based on distance/time). London is riddled with them, and so are major cities. Even by local Tesco has ANPR above every single parking bay to enable their free parking system (if you spend £5 in store).
"From 1 October 2014, the DVLA will no longer issue paper tax discs" I read this a few weeks ago and wasn't sure then either - does this mean I can bin my tax discs and whip off my tax disc holders from Wednesday, or I need to keep the disc on until I renew next? EDIT: Ah, found it this time, didn't seem to be publicised quite as well when I last looked... "From October 1st 2014 you’ll no longer need to display a road tax disc on your car windscreen"
I've been putting off buying a new tax-disk holder because of this. Only 1 more day of barely-visible-curled-up-tax-disk For The Cheesecake!
Will they be putting up new additional cameras or ty into the existing network? New ones with new networking would easily eat up the savings.
Over the last 6 months, they have been putting loads of new cameras around, especially on exits/entrances to major roads and motorways.
I've noticed an increase in mobile units, vans driving around with cameras fixed to the roof. We even get them driving around the car park at work (I believe the car park is leased from the local authority, so not classed as private ground), and on more than one occasion they have got out clamped the car and attached a notice to the side window. Quite embarrassing at your work
It all depends on how it's used, just like keeping records of who you communicate with, where you are when you use your mobile phone, what web sites you visit, etc, etc. These things can and have been misused, take the case of John Catt... To think that the police have such wide ranging powers of surveillance in a democratic country should be a concern, it's all well and good when those powers are used for good but what happens when what's considered good or bad changes ?