clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk   
Page last updated at 18:00 GMT, Friday, 22 May 2009 19:00 UK

Camera grid to log number plates


By Richard Bilton
Special correspondent, BBC News

A national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months, the BBC has learned.

John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town.


It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a "marker" on his car. That meant he was added to a "hotlist".


This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit.


"I was threatened under the Terrorist Act. I had to answer every question they put to me, and if there were any questions I would refuse to answer, I would be arrested. I thought to myself, what kind of world are we living in?"


Sussex police would not talk about the case.