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Watch out for the watchers

It looks as if automatic number-plate recognition systems are coming to NZ -- in fact they're already being trialled in South Auckland.

Police tell us that these are being used to identify "vehicles of interest" which maybe stolen or registered to persons against who there are outstanding arrest warrants.

In an interview on NatRad yesterday morning, a police spokesperson promised that they wouldn't be used for things as trivial as issuing tickets for expired WOFs.

Is that like the promise not to hide speed cameras and to only use them in accident black-spots?

In Australia and the UK, these automated systems (fitted to many regular patrol cars) are frequently used to run automated checks on vehicles while cruising the motorways and highways and it's hard to argue against their use in this way.

Unwarranted vehicles may pose a safety risk to other road-users and unregistered ones are unfairly placing the burden of road maintenance and injury treatment on other drivers so why shouldn't we use automated systems to ensure compliance?

But I remind people of the column I wrote earlier this week in which I suggested that RFID tags on vehicles might be a worthwhile way of automating many aspects of road-traffic law-enforcement. Perhaps our police are going to opt instead for this visual system.

When I mooted RFID tags, some readers commented that it was too open to abuse -- all you had to do was take the tag from someone else's vehicle and affix it to your own in order to dodge automatically generated parking tickets, speeding fines etc.

Well I guess relying on number plates makes it even easier.

A "smart" RFID tag could be configured so that any attempt to tamper or transfer it would set it into alarm-mode, effectively alerting authorities to the fact that the vehicle to which it was affixed was not necessarily the one to which it belonged. Number plates are too dumb to allow this kind of cleverness.

But there are downsides to this technology and (of course) they involve privacy.

When interviewed on TV, the Police admitted that its original development was as an anti-terrorism tool. To that end it allows the tracking and archiving of the movements of any vehicles that pass by the cameras involved. Over time, police and other authorities could track your every move around town or around the country.

Only those with something to hide have anything to fear?

I believe we do have to sacrifice a degree of freedom for security but the balance is quickly tipping too far towards a "big brother" state where we are still not 100% secure but our almost every move is watched.

Perhaps in countries where terrorism is an issue there is justification for this kind of nosiness -- but NZ?

Of course Police would argue that this information may be used to prove people's innocence so we should all be in favour of it -- but then again, we all know that it's not unheard of for Police to alter evidence to suit their goals (Arthur Allan Thomas anyone?). How could any citizen contest suitably "adjusted" information from one of these numberplate recognition systems that showed their vehicle was somewhere when in fact it wasn't?

Again, we've been promised by police that the information obtained from these systems will not be archived. It will be held only as long as necessary to act as evidence in a prosecution and then deleted. Right.. and there are no hidden speed cameras and they are only ever used in accident black-spots, just like they promised.

Excuse my cynicism but I've seen far too many iron-clad guarantees from police, politicians and other bureaucrats which have been reversed in the blink of an eye when it suits them to do so. If these systems are to be introduced we must accept that the data in them will be archived and will be called on for evidence if/when required for crimes unrelated to road-safety.

And, as we know by way of the corruption that's already been seen within the police force and IRD (who are both supposed to operate "secure" computer systems) it's only a matter of time before private investigators find ways of buying access to the information they need when hired to track the movements of a suspected cheating spouse or delinquent debtor.

I already miss the days when the state considered its citizens innocent of crimes until such time as it were proven otherwise. Today we're increasingly assumed to be breaking the law in some way so we must be increasingly monitored to ensure that we're not.

At least this move should free up front-line police to spend their time dealing with real crimes, rather than setting up road-blocks in the hope of finding someone who's overlooked the fact that their WOF expired last week and hasn't had a chance get it renewed yet.

But just when do we say "enough -- we demand the right to privacy as we go about our lawful activities, and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty"?

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