MASS SURVEILLANCE HITS MANCHESTER

Practically every car that drives into Manchester is being photographed by a new network of police cameras, it has emerged.

After London, the northern city is the first to use Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras in this way and it is estimated 600,000 motorists a day are being snapped by the new technology.

The police are understood to be storing the information for five years to fight terrorism, crime and car theft, with the police claiming they have ‘enormous benefits’.

When drivers use 12 major routes to enter the city their number plates, car colour and time they entered the city are all logged on a central database.

Civil rights campaigners have hit out at the scheme, saying that it was another step closer to a ‘Big Brother’ state.

The information that is recorded is checked with the DVLA and Police National Computer.

James Welch, legal director of the civil rights group Liberty, told the BBC: ‘We have no problem with its use to locate vehicles whose owners police firmly suspect of having committed an offence.

‘But it shouldn't be used for mass surveillance, or to target people the police have a hunch are up to no good.’