Originally Posted by ALi-B

There is a slight problem with that quoted story; its source and wikipedia - if you look at where the article originated, its via an anarchist biased website, obviously the wiki contributor has interesting political idealogies OK, joking aside, I found the same article elsewhere, but knowing how the media copy and pastes everything to get a story, its hard to say where it originated and the accuracy of the circumstances.

But lets just assume it happened, we however can't analyse that story any further, other than the ANPR put a marker on their car, and consquentally it was stopped a period after by the Police.

Now there are a few points that should happen:

a) A police officer with common sense would quickly realise this is an error.

b) Police officers should use their own discretion and common sense when using data from the system - i.e to assess other indicators that would pose the vehicle to be dodgy. And not to fully rely on what the computer says. For example, insurance: in the knowledge of how incompeteant the insurance industry can be. In my case they entered my reg number wrong and I didn't know until they finally sent the policy documents and certificate (three weeks). The sysetm is only as good as those who enter data upon it. And officers should know due to that it is not accurate or to be relied upon without corroboratory evidence.

c) Any incorrect information, when found should be corrected immediately upon realisation.

In light of this, there are two outcomes: An officer with common sense would quickly realise the information on the ANPR is wrong, and then conduct/end his enquiry in the according manner with minimal harm or fuss.

Obviously, a failure of the system is a brainwashed imbecile police officer treating it as 100% accurate evidence and then treating unsuspecting innocent members of the public like terrorists, handcuffing a 80yr old with his face on the pavement whilst barking the terrorist act at the detainee like the officer was Judge Dredd.

You see. Its not the ANPR at fault, nor the database in which it is stored. Its the persons using it who interprets and maintains the information. And that is down to training and monitoring of standard.