Anti-terror police gain real-time access to all congestion charge camera data

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from various sources, 3 October 2007: British anti-terrorist police will be given real-time access to the massive surveillance camera network operated in London to support the Congestion Charge.

The city transport authority, Transport for London (TfL), uses 1,500 cameras and Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology (ANPR) to record the number and location of most vehicles which move within the Congestion Charging zone, in order to check that drivers have paid their fees.

TfL also use mobile enforcement vans scattered across central London to photograph all passing traffic.

As the new ANPR network is rolled out across the country, the government intends to allow all police forces real-time access to all traffic movement data, for use in all police work, not just anti-terror cases.

Other government agencies and departments (and overseas law enforcement agencies?) could eventually have access to the information, so that routine vehicle tracking data could be used by tax officials, Child Support Agency, benefit fraud investigators and so on.

In the original briefing on TfL's move, it was stressed by the Home Office that the TfL data could be used only for national security purposes and not to fight ordinary crime, (apart, presumably, from the ordinary crime of not paying one's congestion charge). However, extra documents were accidentally included in the press release pack which made it clear that the system would a) go national and b) extend beyond specific terror-related investigations.

Until now, when police needed to access the TfL database of vehicle times and locations, they had to request information on a case-by-case basis. There are reports that the Metropolitan Police's new Counter Terrorism Command used TfL's camera data in tracing the movement of the cars used by the failed alleged would-be gas-car-bomb terrorists in London in June.

The British home secretary had exempted TfL and the Metropolitan anti-terrorist police from certain parts of the 1998 Data Protection Act, which would otherwise have made the scheme illegal. But there are questions about whether goverment ministers have this power.

Some contend, that under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the police still have to request data on a case by case basis, as mass surveillance using ANPR is illegal, according to the Surveillance Commissioners (who are all former High Court Judges).

The Metropolitan Police will produce an annual report for the Information Commissioner, the government's data protection watchdog who oversees how material from CCTV cameras is used. The scheme will also be reviewed in three months' time after an interim report by Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, so the home secretary can be "personally satisfied ... that the privacy of individuals is protected".

Actual criminals and terrorists who know what they're doing will continue to use freshly-stolen, duplicated or otherwise 'clean' plates. Or just won't use a car.

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The London Congestion Charge scheme produces several kinds of data:

- Colour "street scene" CCTV images at the entrances and exits of the Congestion Zones, and from mobile enforcement vans, anywhere within either Zone.

- Infrared greyscale images of vehicle number plates at the entrances and exits of the Congestion Zones, and from mobile enforcement vans, anywhere within either Zone.

- ANPR processed text files of the vehicle number plate, time, date and camera location at the entrances and exits of the Congestion Zones, and from mobile enforcement vans, anywhere within either Zone.

- Pre-payment individual registration details

- Fleet registration vehicle details

- Credit card pre-payment details linked to a particular vehicle number plate

- Mobile phone pre-payment linked to a particular vehicle number plate and mobile phone.

- Exempt Vehicle status data

All this data is only collected by TfL theoretically for the purpose of enforcing the Congestion Charge, which is only in force from Monday to Friday, from 6am to 7pm. The quesytion is thereforewhether the police are allowed to see data from outside the time period of the charge.

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[Not sure where this article came from originally: it was emailed in to this site but I seem to have lost the source link].

Spy camera identifies polluting drivers

By GT, 18/07/2007

Drivers of vehicles that emit unacceptable levels of pollution could be targeted by a new weapon in the fight to improve air quality.

A spy camera capable of analysing exhaust fumes and recording number plates is being tested and reviewed by London transport bosses.

The Accuscan 4600 works by firing ultraviolet and infrared light across the road. It can scan 3,000 vehicles every hour and pinpoint transgressors in less than a second.

Transport for London has been testing the £100,000 device at Tower Bridge and could use them to help police its city-wide Low Emission Zone, due to come into effect in February 2008.

Drivers of lorries, buses and coaches that fail to meet the emissions targets will be charged £200 a day to drive into London.

The city's air quality is the worst in Britain and among the worst in Europe. Roadside air pollution has been on the rise in London for the past two years and a recent survey by Ipsos Mori found that 72 per cent of residents were concerned about pollution from traffic fumes.

The zone will begin by focusing on older, more polluting lorries then include lighter lorries and vans, with the aim of cutting emissions by 16 per cent by 2012. If successful, it could be adopted by other local authorities across Britain.

A TfL spokesman insisted that, if adopted, the new cameras would not be used to target drivers but to record the overall success of the zone.

TfL is currently installing different cameras around the perimeter of London capable of calculating from the model of each heavy goods vehicle whether it is capable of meeting the low emissions target.

Referring to the Accuscan 4600, the spokesman said: "A small trial has been undertaken of devices that measure pollutant emissions from vehicles, the results of which have been provided to Transport for London.

"We are studying these results, and if these devices provide robust data we will look at piloting them for emissions monitoring for the Low Emission Zone. However, we will not be using these devices to enforce the Low Emission Zone."

However, Duncan Mounsour, of Enviro Technology Services which has developed the Accuscan 4600, said the system could be used for enforcement.

"Should registered keepers of those vehicles not heed any notices that may be sent to them to get their vehicles tuned up and better maintained, then it could be used as a system to issue penalties," he said.

Under Department for Transport regulations, local authorities are empowered to conduct emission checks and fine drivers breaking legal limits. Until now, however, enforcement has been impractical.

Council officials have had to stop vehicles with the help of police officers and measure a vehicle's emissions using an electronic probe.

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