Apparently unsatisfied with the millions of “reads” they get from number plates already, the police would like access to similar ANPR equipment used by TFL to enforce the congestion charge and low emissions zones.
These systems record the times and places your car visits, whether or not you are under suspicion.
Here is the email from TFL, requesting my view:
Dear Mr Gibbs,
I am writing to let you know that you can give the Mayor of London your views on his proposals to allow the Metropolitan Police to have access to Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras for crime prevention reasons.We use these cameras to monitor and enforce Congestion Charging and the Low Emission Zone.
For more information and to share your views, please click here
To take part in this consultation, please use the link above. Any responses to this email will be passed to the Greater London Authority along with your name and email address, so that they can reply to you directly.
This consultation will close on Tuesday 8 April.
Yours sincerely,Paul Cowperthwaite
General Manager Congestion Charging
Perhaps the answer is to develop technology that can allow pay as you go market driven road pricing yet maintains privacy or anonymity.
It would theoretically be possible for blockchain technology to be used so that cars driving past sensors can provably transmit their payment / right to be on the road without revealing their identity. Cameras or enforcement would only become active if a car passed without transmitting a valid payment hash.
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Interesting fwiw, but I don’t see the police leaving the enforcement cameras alone, just because the car/driver is being well behaved with regards to payment.
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