Britain to monitor every car journey

Britain in 2006 will become the first country to monitor every car journey on its roads. Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years. The system will be in addition to the already pervasive camera system used to catch speeders and other traffic violators. The new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years. Already, however, there are plans to extend the database by increasing the storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed each day into the central databank. More than 50 local authorities have already signed agreements to allow the police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can read number plates automatically.