UK can now enforce more traffic offenses with ‘ultra’ surveillance cameras

The United Kingdom is rolling out robust new traffic cameras across the country which will not only be used to catch drivers violating the speed limit but also those not wearing seatbelts or holding phones in their hands.

Referred to as “ultra cameras,” the devices are also more stealthy. There will be no flash to alert drivers they have been photographed. They also use infrared technology and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) which help identify drivers. The VECTOR-SR cameras, made by German manufacturer Jenoptik Traffic Solutions, run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. 

Each camera is a standalone device that can be fastened to a pole and need not be hard-wired into the existing network, reports the Daily Mail. 

Over 100 have so far been installed in Manchester, and Scotland recently signed a contract to install them across Glasgow and Edinburgh. 

“There was a lawyer back in 2010 who used the expression ‘omni-surveillance’ and I think, yes, we are in that. There isn’t much not being watched by somebody,” said Fraser Sampson, who last month left his post as the British Home Office’s biometrics and surveillance commissioner.

Surveillance cameras are also being used by British authorities to enforce climate mandates. In August Mayor Sadiq Khan peppered the city with ultra-low emission zones (ULEZs), areas in London accessible only to low-emission vehicles. Cars that do not meet the city’s environmental standards are charged £12.50 ($16) for entering the ULEZ. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras positioned around the zones read license plates and check them against the vehicles’ make and model in real time. If a vehicle does not meet the environmental threshold, a fine is levied against the car owner. Failure to pay can lead to fines as high as £258 ($331).

The ULEZ climate mandate has drawn heavy protests from residents, including hunger strikes and refusal to pay fines. Taxpayers have also taken to disabling the ANPR surveillance cameras which the city’s transportation department Transport for London (TfL) said will be used both for climate and law enforcement.

In response, the city deployed mobile surveillance vans mounted with ANPR cameras across London in the hopes of evading attacks, but the vans are being targeted as well. Some have been spotted covered in graffiti with their tires slashed, while others have been completely covered in tarp.

Last month British Policing Minister Chris Philp penned a letter to police forces nationwide urging them to increase their use of both passive and active facial recognition searches.

Passive — or retroactive — facial recognition (RFR) involves police combing through CCTV footage after a crime is committed and matching the suspect’s face with a police database. 

Active — or live — facial recognition (LFR), on the other hand, involves law enforcement using “special purpose cameras” to scan crowds for people on police watchlists.

But UK law enforcement has recently come under fire for its practices regarding its databases and watchlists. Police have yet to delete over three million images of people who were never charged with a crime despite being ordered to do so by a court in 2012.

“So when we’re having conversations about new technologies such as facial recognition, the conversation often comes back to: ‘Why would we trust you to get this bit right? When you’ve still got legacy problems from 10 years ago from other images?’ People want to know with facial recognition: how do they find their way onto a watch list, and how could they get off it? And that’s really important,” Sampson told the Guardian.

Police watchlists are known to include non-criminal taxpayers. At the Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix in July live facial recognition was used, but a Freedom of Information request later revealed that only 234 out of 790 names on the police’s LFR watchlist were criminal suspects.