IJsselland police’s experiment creates stir 08/05/2008 00:00

The police have been recording the licence plates of cars driving along the A28 and A50 motorways.

8 May 2008

IJSSELLAND - De Volkskrant has a report on the growing controversy over an experiment by police in the eastern region of IJsselland which involves the registration of the licence plates of all cars driving along the A28 and A50 motorways.

Police say the stored licence plate data and time of registration will make it easier to track down suspects when a crime is committed in the region, but a majority in parliament says IJsselland police have overstepped the mark.

Only the Christian Democrats approve of the experiment, saying that they "regard it as an extension of CCTV supervision on public highways, which is of prime importance to our security".

However, the Dutch Data Protection Authority has announced it will issue guidelines at the end of June which may result in IJsselland police having to end the storage of car registration data.  

DPA chairman Jacob Kohnstamm says that "police do not have the authority to register and store the data of citizens who are not suspected of a crime".

[Radio Netherlands / Georg Schreuder Hes / Flickr contributor Entragan / Expatica]