Outrage over another secret police database
Police chiefs are under fire again after it was revealed today that the personal details of innocent motorists are being stored on a centralised database without their knowledge or permission.
The Sunday Times reported that up to 14 million photos of motorists are taken every day via a network of roadside cameras across the country and stored on a database in Hendon for at least two years.
The initiative uses automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) technology to track vehicle movement, and the database contains car registration details as well as photographs of the driver and front seat passengers. The ANPR network was developed in 2006 and now comprises more than 10,000 CCTV cameras, although the system has expanded largely without parliamentary scrutiny, the report said.
