Police swamped by dragnet booty demand more dosh

POLICE IN ENGLAND have become so overworked by the data they get from surveillance dragnets that they've had to lump another above-inflation tax increase on every household in Britain.

The increase in the police precept, the portion of the council tax bill set by the police, went up nearly six per cent in England last year, and will jump another five per cent this year.

Bob Jones, chair of the Association of Police Authorities, said much of the cost was attributable to police use of surveillance technology, like CCTV and auto-number plate recognition (ANPR).

"It's not just the cost of the kit or running it," he said. "For example, with ANPR you need about 30 police officers to intercept when you get a hit. You need someone to stop them, process and arrest them. So to do it continuously, you need the [resources]".

Essex police bragged last week that it had built the largest ANPR "intercept " team in Britain, which consisted of nine "high-powered" Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo's, driven by "highly trained pursuit drivers".

They can clock 18 million number plates every month, about 540,000 (or three per cent) of which "will flag up a warning to the officers".

The police tap on council tax went up 124.7 per cent since 2001, according to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountability.

Police ANPR dragnets are not dolphin friendly. Since January 2007, Essex police have arrested 350 people after clocking them with ANPR. They did not say how many of those were subsequently charged or prosecuted.

They fingered 775 people for being uninsured and recovered 30 stolen cars. They issued 1,467 fixed penalty notices for things like having a broken tail light. They scanned 216m people.

The average household will paid £156 on policing next year. They paid just £69 in 2000.

Jones said that rises were in double digits early in the millennium because of large increases in police numbers and investment in supporting IT.

Some of the more recent rises were also attributable to fancy forensics like DNA and hours of police time spent poring over CCTV footage on those rare occasions when they have to search for someone like the Ipswich strangler, of whom there are thankfully not many prowling our streets.

Pete Fussey, an academic with the University of East London who has looked at how the police have influenced town centre CCTV policy, cautioned about the " seductive" quality of technology, which leads people to buy natty gadgets without checking to prove whether they are value for money.

But consider, if technology made it economical to scan 21.6 million homes in Britain every year (and such technologies are not entirely beyond the realms of possibility), would it be desirable? Answers by book and film references, please. µ