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As motoring enthusiasts, you've probably heard that thousands of additional roadside cameras are to be erected. Focusing on number plates, they're to allow criminals and suspects to be monitored on the move. What sort of people are we talking about? Everybody from murderers to those whose road tax has not been renewed on time. Fair enough. But how many serial killers and terrorists do you think these cameras will identify and bring to justice? Very few, if any!

By Mike Rutherford

06th April 2005

Here's an idea of how intense this camera network will be. There'll be 28 around the Dartford Crossing - a tiny stretch of the M25. Be in no doubt that the major target is people such as you and me, committing minor motoring offences or suffering because of administrative mistakes. We'll be hounded down and heavily fined for our often insignificant car-related offences. (Is the crime of driving a motor with a just-expired tax disc very different from paying a phone bill a week late?). Meanwhile, the real bad guys will remain virtually untouched by the weak arm of the law. Dangerous career criminals who are serious about what they do are several steps ahead of the game.

When, for example, they need to use cars, they perfectly legally ask friends, relatives or other facilitators to buy, register, tax and insure vehicles on their behalf. Alternatively, they'll simply borrow or hire motors from numerous sources which, again, is perfectly legitimate. As is using taxis, the drivers of which might be regularly monitored while their passengers go unchecked. For obvious reasons, I won't go into precise details here, but there are countless other ways that the real bad boys and girls can stay on the road with little or no hope of ever being noticed, never mind caught.

I mean, for all we know, the world's most wanted terrorist might be in Britain now, clean shaven, hair dyed blonde and driving all day, every day while planning his next move. But what are the chances of this new-look Osama Bin Laden registering a car in his own name? And will he be tempted to disclose on the registration documents the addresses of the numerous safe houses he's basing himself at? Somehow, I think not.

No, drug dealers and killers with any common sense ensure their vehicles are squeaky clean and that any motoring fines are quickly paid. It will guarantee they remain unnoticed by these new cameras. The money generated will be lucrative for the authorities, but any impact on hardcore criminality will be negligible. Smart law enforcers are discreet, and point their cameras in the direction of proper crooks. They target drug-dealing venues, not motorways, and keep quiet about it so as not to give advance warning to the enemy. They don't attend media launches and photo opportunities with Government ministers, which is what our cops are loudly and proudly doing. These cameras will do little more than punish generally honest, hard-working drivers who inevitably make occasional mistakes.

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