Big brother is watching you
There are about 300 ANPR cameras scattered throughout the Netherlands. Or Automatic Number Plate Recognition, if you sometimes forget how you that word says in Dutch. The cameras scan license plates on highways and provincial roads. If fines are outstanding, an agent can pick the car in question off the road, for example. Of those cameras, 55 can take very sharp photos on which apparently the occupants of a vehicle are also visible.
And that’s not allowed
According to the NRC the more advanced ANPR cameras were used for ‘investigation purposes and criminal investigations’, while there was no legal basis for this. This was stated in an internal police report. NRC reports: ‘The scientific office of the Public Prosecution Service is investigating whether there is another legal basis for the photos. The Public Prosecution Service says “pending the investigation” it will no longer use the photos for “criminal purposes”. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the photos were used in a small number of criminal cases.’
The ANPR cameras take 350,000 photos a day
The 55 sharp cameras alone shoot 350,000 images per day and the photos are stored for 28 days. The police like to use the ANPR cameras to track down suspects of serious crimes. In case of concrete suspicion, the agents can consult the database. Thanks to the ANPR system, the two suspects in the attack by Peter R. de Vries last month could be caught within an hour.
The system does fulfill an important function, but it would make George Orwell sad. Decide for yourself whether you belong to the ‘I have nothing to hide’ camp, or whether you would rather only entrust all your personal information to Google, Facebook and TikTok.
-1597656695.jpg "Police officers are more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress")
