SOLV.co.uk, 19 Feb 2013: 'Opstelten wants License Plate database'

"Security and Justice Minister Opstelten wants a change in the law to allow license plates of all motor vehicles to be stored and retained for four weeks following camera registration. It is proposed that the license plate number, location and time of capture of the license plate and photo capture of the vehicle can be retained (hereinafter referred to as "passage data").

At present, license plates which, when compared, are not 'hit'  yield (i.e. do not match license plates already known to the police) immediately destroyed. Retaining data when the person is not known to the police is not allowed. Minister Opstelten wants the amendment to the law to allow license plates and related data to be recorded regardless of whether there is a 'hit'.

The bill

In the proposed legislative amendment  provides that the retained data can be accessed in case of suspicion of certain crimes and for the arrest of fugitives.

The consultation is done only by comparing police data, computerised with the retained passage data to determine whether the data match. "This means that only on the basis of ''hit no hit' can be searched in the retained data, i.e. from investigative data already known to the police".

Privacy First

According to Privacy First, such a law violates the European Convention on Human Rights and privacy laws, among others. Therefore, the privacy advocate will go to court if the Lower and Upper Houses will pass the bill.

Legal requirements

An earlier proposal by the minister was withdrawn in 2010 after the Lower House raised objections. The Data Protection Board at the time was  highly critical of the bill and at the time even caused some police forces to stop using stored license plates as it was against the law. (...)"

Read HERE the entire article on SOLV Lawyers' weblog.