Thmsshaun
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2004
- Messages
- 2,630
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
- Car
- 2009 C300 4Matic, 2012 Kia Sportage, 2015 Triumph Tiger800 XCX
I am sure someone had posted about this 
However an interesting article.
Blanket camera coverage: thin end of the wedge?
The Government's Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system goes live from today, and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has promised tough enforcement action to crack down on uninsured drivers. Police forces across the country are now able to use ANPR cameras to spot, and ultimately seize and destroy, cars being driven without insurance.
The cameras are linked to a database which contains details of all vehicles registered in the UK which are believed to be uninsured. The Transport Secretary saw West Midlands police in action as they began the crackdown.
Alistair Darling said: "Today we are sending out a very clear message to those who drive without insurance- there is now no place to hide. The new powers to link up cameras and the insurance database will make it far easier for police to tell if passing cars are uninsured and take action against the driver.
"On top of these powers we are creating a new offence of keeping a vehicle without insurance. This will be enforced through a new database of insurance details which means that uninsured drivers don't even need to be on the road to be caught. It is estimated that every law-abiding motorist pays an extra £30 a year because of uninsured drivers. Drivers are rightly fed up with those who flout the law and we are determined to rid the roads of this small hard core of anti-social drivers."
The new offence of keeping a vehicle without insurance, announced by the Government in September, will mean that uninsured drivers can be caught before they even take to the road. Earlier this year the government gave the police new powers, to seize and ultimately dispose of any vehicle being found driven uninsured.
Road safety group Safe Speed however said that ANPR won't fix the problem. ANPR is a system that uses a video camera looking at vehicles to 'capture' number plates. The registration mark is then compared electronically with various databases of vehicles that the police may be interested in.
Safe Speed said that Government's claims that ANPR can be effective against uninsured drivers do not bear scrutiny:
It's not the vehicle that needs insurance under the law, it's the driver.
About three million motor vehicles are 'in the trade' at any one time. Most of them will be properly insured, but none of them will be listed as insured in the databases.
At least 1.5 million vehicles are in large fleets and are not insured based on vehicle registration mark. They aren't in the databases either.
It's far from unusual to have a vehicle that is registered as insured being driven by a driver who has no insurance to drive in force. ANPR thinks the insurance is OK, but it isn't.
Even with a massive police effort it is virtually inconceivable that they will reach 250,000 prosecutions in a year. With two million uninsured drivers that means that the average uninsured driver should expect to get caught just once every eight years.
ANPR can be defeated by stealing or cloning vehicle registration marks. Widespread use of ANPR will make this practice commonplace and threatens to undermine the entire registration process. Reports suggest that 10 per cent of vehicles are already lost to the system.
Police officers have already reported so many false positives with ANPR, that they simply turn the equipment off -- as reported in Auto Express.
Vehicle seizures will encourage the use of 'disposable' vehicles. The Police crush a £100 banger, and the uninsured driver simply buys another. He's back on the road in a week.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "Estimates of the number of uninsured drivers on our roads range up to 2 million. By any standards it's a serious problem. But serious problems require serious solutions. Current plans are a bad joke.
"The uninsured driver problem is considerably worsened by this government's anti-car and anti-motorist policies; more and more motorists are finding that they are simply better off outside the law."
PistonHeads says: it's an honourable start for the system with laudable aims -- but it's also another step towards a camera-infested, totally surveilled society. Is this what we really want?
However an interesting article.
Blanket camera coverage: thin end of the wedge?
The Government's Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system goes live from today, and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has promised tough enforcement action to crack down on uninsured drivers. Police forces across the country are now able to use ANPR cameras to spot, and ultimately seize and destroy, cars being driven without insurance.
The cameras are linked to a database which contains details of all vehicles registered in the UK which are believed to be uninsured. The Transport Secretary saw West Midlands police in action as they began the crackdown.
Alistair Darling said: "Today we are sending out a very clear message to those who drive without insurance- there is now no place to hide. The new powers to link up cameras and the insurance database will make it far easier for police to tell if passing cars are uninsured and take action against the driver.
"On top of these powers we are creating a new offence of keeping a vehicle without insurance. This will be enforced through a new database of insurance details which means that uninsured drivers don't even need to be on the road to be caught. It is estimated that every law-abiding motorist pays an extra £30 a year because of uninsured drivers. Drivers are rightly fed up with those who flout the law and we are determined to rid the roads of this small hard core of anti-social drivers."
The new offence of keeping a vehicle without insurance, announced by the Government in September, will mean that uninsured drivers can be caught before they even take to the road. Earlier this year the government gave the police new powers, to seize and ultimately dispose of any vehicle being found driven uninsured.
Road safety group Safe Speed however said that ANPR won't fix the problem. ANPR is a system that uses a video camera looking at vehicles to 'capture' number plates. The registration mark is then compared electronically with various databases of vehicles that the police may be interested in.
Safe Speed said that Government's claims that ANPR can be effective against uninsured drivers do not bear scrutiny:
It's not the vehicle that needs insurance under the law, it's the driver.
About three million motor vehicles are 'in the trade' at any one time. Most of them will be properly insured, but none of them will be listed as insured in the databases.
At least 1.5 million vehicles are in large fleets and are not insured based on vehicle registration mark. They aren't in the databases either.
It's far from unusual to have a vehicle that is registered as insured being driven by a driver who has no insurance to drive in force. ANPR thinks the insurance is OK, but it isn't.
Even with a massive police effort it is virtually inconceivable that they will reach 250,000 prosecutions in a year. With two million uninsured drivers that means that the average uninsured driver should expect to get caught just once every eight years.
ANPR can be defeated by stealing or cloning vehicle registration marks. Widespread use of ANPR will make this practice commonplace and threatens to undermine the entire registration process. Reports suggest that 10 per cent of vehicles are already lost to the system.
Police officers have already reported so many false positives with ANPR, that they simply turn the equipment off -- as reported in Auto Express.
Vehicle seizures will encourage the use of 'disposable' vehicles. The Police crush a £100 banger, and the uninsured driver simply buys another. He's back on the road in a week.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "Estimates of the number of uninsured drivers on our roads range up to 2 million. By any standards it's a serious problem. But serious problems require serious solutions. Current plans are a bad joke.
"The uninsured driver problem is considerably worsened by this government's anti-car and anti-motorist policies; more and more motorists are finding that they are simply better off outside the law."
PistonHeads says: it's an honourable start for the system with laudable aims -- but it's also another step towards a camera-infested, totally surveilled society. Is this what we really want?
