Journalist, editor, analyst and trainer on computing, government, climate and data
Hertfordshire police has defended its plans to circle a town in the county with automatic numberplate recognition cameras
More on policing here. Continue reading “Privacy groups take Royston’s ANPR plans to ICO”
Police are reluctant to reveal locations of automatic numberplate recognition cameras, but their secretive approach is not working
This decision was reversed by a later tribunal in 2012, but the evidence shed new light on police ANPR systems, covered in this Guardian article. Continue reading “Open up the numberplate recognition camera system”
Damian Green has marked the end of the identity card scheme by feeding its drives into an industrial shredder in Essex
After years of debate, hours of a parliamentary time and millions of pounds, I saw minister Damian Green feeding some of the hard drives behind the ID cards system into an industrial shredder in Essex. It was certainly an unusual press trip – see images below.
Figures released by the government show large variations in the use of automatic numberplate recognition cameras by police forces
Data from two councils, a rural district and a London borough, suggests big differences in spending on CCTV
Using Freedom of Information to find council CCTV costs, usage and efficiency in two contrasting areas of England. More recently, I have mapped comprehensive data collected by Big Brother Watch on this subject.
The debate over the use of CCTV can be rather sterile. The police, local authorities and other parts of the public sector present them as a public good, there “for your safety and security” as station announcements phrase it. Continue reading “A tale of two cameras”