CCTV Network Tracks Getaway Car

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC is reporting that a 'pioneering number plate recognition system in Bradford played a vital role in the arrests of six suspects' after the murder of a Policewoman - within minutes of Friday's shootings, police were using the system to track the suspected getaway car." From the article: "When a car is entered on the system it will 'ping' whenever it passes one of our cameras, which makes it a lot easier to track than waiting for a patrol car to spot it."

You live in a police state: Rejoice!

[Scrameustache]

Big Brother is watching you. Don't you feel double plus safe?

I for one

[carlcmc]

I for one welcome our no-murder enforcing CCTV-watching overlords.

Privacy? They killed a policewoman. let em hang. whoops... do they do that in Britain? :-)

yeah well....

[joemawlma]

"When a car is entered on the system it will 'ping' whenever it passes one of our cameras, which makes it a lot easier to track than waiting for a patrol car to spot it." If the "Ping" is above 100, I'm finding another server..

Re:You live in a police state: Rejoice!

[kentrel]

I know, its terrible. People can't commit murders now without being tracked by the police straight away. What has the world come to!

Re:You live in a police state: Rejoice!

[MaestroSartori]

Next time I commit a crime and get my number plate followed using a system like this, I'll be horrified at the privacy invasion...

Perhaps if/when they extend it to track all vehicles as a matter of course, I'll be worried about some Orwellian nightmare the way you seem to imply I should be now. Maybe if I knew how to drive and owned a car it'd be more of a worry to me now, I can't really say.

This is dangerous and scary

[Anonymous Coward]

If this concept spreads, criminals will merely switch from making getaways in cars to making getaways in boats. The speeds may be reduced, but boats have much less maneuverability and longer stopping distances. Risks to neighboring automobiles from anchors and propellers also promises to raise the number of injuries to innocents in this misguided effort to fight crime.

Re:You live in a police state: Rejoice!

[Tackhead]

> I know, its terrible. People can't commit murders now without being tracked by the police straight away. What has the world come to!

Citizen kentrel anteposting approved fullwise suggestion contained thisposting doubleplus ridiculous verging crimethink

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

- Functional Specification, Airstrip One

Obligatory Monty Python Reference

[R3d M3rcury]

"When a car is entered on the system it will 'ping' whenever it passes one of our cameras [...]"

Ah yes. The machine that goes 'ping'!

Don't touch it!!

[bernywork]

2) What is it?

1) It's the machine that goes Ping!

2) What?

1) We don't know what it does, it just goes "Ping" every now and again and we are scared to turn it off.

Re:Sigh why was he modded informative

[Johnboi Waltune]

They do have every right to use drug dogs if they pull your car over but they can't go further if dogs turn up nothing.

That was a major stumbling block for law enforcement, until they realized they could secretly train the new generation of drug dogs to detect gasoline. ;)

Re:Shooting?? I thought the UK had strict gun cont

[crabpeople]

"i suspect that there's a very small portion of the us population which accounts for an overwhelming majority of the gun related incidents."

would that be people with guns?