Britain to monitor every car journey

"Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years."

"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."

Well how would you like to live like that, knowing that you're being tracked everywhere you drive? I know I don't. I'm sure it's "for their own good" though, and they should feel a lot safer knowing Big Brother is watching over them.

Here in the U.S., city after city has been adding camera networks (often citing British cam statistics), though not nearly as extensive as the one London's had for years. Regardless of the excuse given for them, they usually tend to turn up in cities strapped for money. In mine, they've just implemented our first series of traffic cams, about a dozen so far, begun earlier this month, and even though they've repeatedly said it wasn't done for the money, fines from those cameras jumped to several hundred dollars more than they would be if the violation had occured in view of an officer. After the first week, they hadn't mention how many violators they caught, instead they were bragging about how many thousand of dollars the city earned from the fines, with a sizable chunk going to the company that runs them, of course.

Here and across the country they're using security concerns as an excuse for what's obviously a money-making scheme for budget-busted communities. So far, their growing use hasn't been widely promoted as an anti-terrorist program, yet, but I suspect that with the growing use of OnStar-type GPS systems built into new vehicles, such wide-spread use of street cams like Britons', may not even be necessary here to keep us under surveillance. I'm sure that if the government wants, it can simply tap into the satellite signals, just as they do for all those cell phones you people are using. Nope, I don't have a cell, nor do I have Ostar, or anything else with tracking capability. The thought of being clandestinely tracked, just creeps me out, even if it's "for my own good". Besides, with some of the things I've said online, I'd be surprised if I wasn't already on a "watch list" somewhere.

I don't know about Briton, but I believe there are enough examples here of the fact that cameras no more prevent crime (or terrorism, as Londoners learned), than does the death penalty prevent murder. All the major TV networks here have shows designed around video clips from surveillence cameras, as well as news shows that daily present videos of convienience store robberies, and even school shootings. Do any of those cams "make us safe"? No, if anything, they just make money, feed the authorities thirst for control, and the publics' voyeurism.