IN MY VIEW

IT is around 30 years since ANPR’s inception and its slow development across Scotland began.

Initially it was seen as the means for traffic departments to trace speeding drivers, disqualified drivers and the likes.

However, ANPR was quickly identified as a valuable tool to track organised crime figures, terrorists and travelling criminals. It is also useful in tracing missing persons thought to be at risk.

Ideally I would expect a link to be made between live ANPR “hits” on persons of interest to log automatically on police, security services or Revenue Customs systems.

This would flag the hit – recording the facts of the journey such as route, dates and times – but remaining on record in the event that later intelligence provides the need for these facts.

Given the nature of British mainland motorway links, each country’s systems data should be capable of being read throughout the UK.

The modern-day terrorist or criminal travels freely across force boundaries, as we saw with the Glasgow Airport bombers.

Ideally if ANPR operates efficiently one would expect operational officers on the street to not only receive an ANPR hit but in quick time also a background record and, where available, a photograph of a suspect preparing those officers for any warnings before an intended stop.

Delays in providing such systems hamper law enforcement operations and fail to offer the levels of protection one now expects for those engaged in enforcement activities.

The mistakes arising from the absence of information and intelligence in this fashion can cost investigations not only time but great expense as officers fail to properly follow through due to the missing information that would make the

difference.