Unregistered vehicles are not a safety issue. That is simply loss of Govt. revenue. Deemed a more serious offence than no WOF (a true safety issue) on the scale of fines. Those who say they have nothing to fear may wish to lodge a travel and intentions plan with the Police every time the leave home. After all, they have nothing to hide...
"You! Papers please."
I welcome the ANPR camera system. It works so effectively in other countries (Mainly UK) alerting police to those road users without MOT, Insurance ETC. The camera is aimed at your number plate, not your windscreen, they are not out to photograph you. And even if they do, only police have access to these not general public. Anyone can take photos of you, without you even knowing. What's the difference between being in the background of a photo taken by a human and being in a passenger seat of a car photographed by the ANPR system? If police set it up to also detect vehicles with lapsed Warrants of Fitness and registrations we would see an overall decrease in the number of unsafe cars on our road, less dangerous cars = less accidents. Simple. I look forward to seeing this system installed all throughout the country in the vans as well as in highway patrol units.
When one reads the majority of comments here, one of the conclusions I reach is how easily led most people are. How simply their opinions can be manipulated and how eager they all are to fall into line with authority, without question or doubt. Is this naiveté, ignorance or stupidity, a combination of all three perhaps? It must have been so easy for the Nazi’s to control public opinion; the public agree with authority, they have no valid opinion of their own. If you are in authority tell the public whatever you like and they will agree, like so many sheep led to slaughter and the dissenting opinion is easily silenced if there is any. Without writing a dissertation on privacy, did anyone think to read something on the concept of the state and the individual’s right to privacy, before voicing an opinion? No I do not think so, which makes your opinions a load of ignorant, irritating and ill informed drivel!
Like the majority of law abiding Citizens, I have no problem with this. Life's too short, let the guilty worry.
Law abiding citizens need not worry i think,just criminals and dickheads.
I'm sure if one of Michael Bott's family members was raped and murdered and a witness got a number plate of the vehicle; he wouldn't be saying take it off the street because it "in essence (its) another huge inroad by Big Brother into the private lives of citizens". Yes citizens Michael, but criminals too. You should know, you represent them in court
Yeah i think its a great idea... they can take as many pictures as they want of me and my car.. HAHAHAH. personally I would be more worried about signing up for facebook than worry about this police system. I mean if your worried about big brother and stuff. As they say if your not doing any thing wrong or illegal then you got nothing to worry about.
"police say innocent citizens have nothing to fear" If this system discarded every recorded number plate that is of no immediate interest to police, I could accept that assurance. The fact that captured data is stored, no matter for how long, infringes on the right to privacy of those innocent citizens.
This is old and has been in use in NZ for months.