Rosio Pavoris

Met given real time c-charge data

Police are to be given live access to London’s congestion charge cameras - allowing them to track all vehicles entering and leaving the zone.

Anti-terror officers will be exempted from parts of the Data Protection Act to allow them to see the date, time and location of vehicles in real time.

They previously had to apply for access on a case-by-case basis.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith blamed the “enduring vehicle-borne terrorist threat to London” for the change.

(…)

But they will only be able to use the data for national security purposes and not to fight ordinary crime, the Home Office stressed.

(For the non-British, “Met” is the Metropolitan Police Force, which is responsible for Greater London. Because apparently London is a separate country now.)

To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised they hadn’t been doing this, and that it took six years for them to actually have the gall to.

Yes, if there were a legitimate terrorist threat, this would be understandable, and perhaps even defensible, but remember, the “enduring vehicle-borne terrorist threat to London” consists of a single amateurish case involving two car bombs, neither of which would have been detected using these cameras.
Islamic terrorism over the past six years has had far less impact than the IRA in the ’80s and ’90s, and they apparently never merited this sort of bullshit.

But the worst part of this: why, pray tell, is “national security” suddenly an acceptable excuse when “ordinary” crime isn’t? They know damn well the people wouldn’t put up with using these cameras for regular crime-fighting (well, considering that this is London, they probably would; I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years, they expanded their power to also allow for regular crime-fighting, and the people of London wouldn’t even notice), so why the fuck are we (well, they) supposed to put up with this for “national security”, a term so vague it might as well mean nothing at all?

Anyway. This acknowledgement probably means it’s been going on for years by now, and it’s a good example of how you will lose your rights if you don’t care about them.
I’m not sure if apathy or fear is the greater driving force behind the Londoners not doing something about this, but in the end, it amounts to the same thing.