#ANPR - safer motoring

Some people are very worried by the formation of data bases and invasive surveillance - perhaps we all should be. I have to say I am not particularly because so many advantages accrue to a law abiding society.

One development that surely benefits us all is ANPR - Automatic Number Plate Recognition.

Until fairly recently it was easy for a motorist to get away with driving a car that was uninsured - or had no current MOT, or no Road Fund Licence - and quite often the absence of all three. Add to that a driver may not have a driving licence either or has been banned.

From later this year the DVLC will no longer be issuing paper licences from Swansea.

Everything relating to your car will be held on an instant database. Everything can be done on line. So when your MOT certificate is issued it goes straight on the national data base - so does your motor insurance - car registration on purchase/sale and driving licence changes.

More and more police vehicles and other traps have ANPR reading equipment. In a micro second the sweep reader picks registration numbers automatically and checks them against the national and police data bases. An alarm signals when the machine sweeps an illegal car. Currently 500 cars per day across the country are being caught and removed from the road because they have deficiencies in their paperwork. The analysis is pretty much instant.

So win win win.

• 500 illegal and probably dangerous drivers taken off the road each day to protect other road users.
• quite often the stop leads to the detection of other offences such as drink or drug use, theft or illegal immigration.
• quick detection system saves on police time and reduces bureaucracy.
• higher detection rates will gradually show motorists they cannot get away with it.
• access available to the general public to the same information via an internet search. (only relating to the car). 

Some libertarians point out this is the over arching state - too much information about individuals being held on data bases - too intrusive - too much police power. Is it really? A superb development in my view. Makes criminals easier to catch and as a consequence it must keep the road user safer. So if there is any downside to ANPR - the upside surely out weighs it.