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ACPO policy: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has published:

The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (.pdf 892Kb)

The policy advice on the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), is mostly common sense, especially regarding actual roadside ANPR with at least two other mobile patrol vehicles to actually stop and search vehicles which have been flagged up by the ANPR / Police National Computer / Local Intelligence database system.

This document does not say much about the National ANPR Data Centre (NADC), but there are some clues about the ANPR data stored on the Police National Computer, with some potentially abusable or easily misinterpreted Warning Markers and the PNC ID categories, which could easily lead to false positives, where innocent people being threatened with firearms or tasers, on the basis of a single mistyped or misread digit. Similarly, there is a danger of false negatives, which could put Police officers and passing members of the public at risk from violent armed criminals or terrorists, who are inadvertently not flagged up as such.

It is also worrying that "extracts" of the entire database are being copied and loaded onto mobile ANPR equipment, which is not linked online to the PNC - such data (including terrorist suspect data) has already been lost on unencrypted USB memory devices

There are some worrying uses of the ANPR for data trawling purposes, netting the details of lots of innocent people, who then get tainted with "guilt by association" with the investigation into criminals etc. e.g.

7.3.2 SUBJECT PROFILE ANALYSIS

ANPR data is one of many sources of information that can be used to develop a subject profile. ANPR data can be layered with other data, such as crime reports, incident reports, witness testimony, CCTV, other surveillance, communication analysis, financial analysis, as well as existing intelligence, to define a pattern of behaviour for a subject of interest.

Once an individual can be associated with a vehicle, ANPR data can help to profile that individual. This relies on the capture and storage of historical ANPR data so that previous movements of a vehicle can be analysed. It can also identify if there is any association between the movements of the subject's vehicle and a crime that has been committed. If a location visited by the vehicle does not form part of a pattern of normal behaviour, it may illustrate a previously unknown location of interest. The analyst, however, needs to be aware of the limitations of ANPR data and the locations of cameras in order to understand how this will influence the profile (see 6.2.5 Limitations).

ANPR deployment may be one of a number of tactical options identified following the identification of either a pattern of offences or a target, especially if the subject is in the early stage of development. ANPR data should be considered to assist in building up a picture of the subject's lifestyle before more expensive options, such as surveillance, are used. See also 6.2.1 Reactive Investigations.

Image from a Back Office Facility (BOF) by QRO Solutions Ltd..

Geographical Profile search results from an Anite BOF (now owned by Northgate Secure Information Solutions Ltd.

Convoy Search results from an Anite BOF - note the use of Google Maps.

There is also a glimpse into the media spin "Media Lines to Take" ,to try to reassure the public that the ANPR data is not being used disproportionately. However there is no mention of the London Congestion Charge ANPR data ("in bulk, in real time") which was exempted from even the weak protection of the Data Protection Act, by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

See Home Secretary Jacqui Smith cripples the Data Protection Act regarding the London Congestion Charge ANPR Mass Surveillance scheme

Full post as published by Spy Blog on August 01, 2009 (boomark / email).