In today’s world, the increasing ubiquity of ‘intelligence technology’ for gathering and delivering reams of data and information, leads many to say that the ‘mechanisation’ of our professions is imminent – envisaging a future in which the human professional is just one half of a ‘cyborg’ collaboration with an artificial intelligence program. In the realm of law enforcement and litigation, we certainly already have available to us technologies which can make our jobs speedier, faster and deliver outcomes which are more just – but human error remains, whilst the machine can fetch information in the blink of an eye – but not understand it.
We therefore remain in a world in which human mistakes can turn a useful technological tool into a trap or hazard – potentially wasting the time of the Police, of the Court and, worst of all, causing the invasion of innocent people’s lives, as today’s blog post about yet more errors in Police use and interpretation of Automatic Number Plate data (ANPR) will reveal.
The ANPR database is available to all Police Forces, and vehicle registrations can be searched upon it for a specified period of time, generating a type of ‘dot to dot’ map of the vehicle’s journeys on any given date i.e the location of the vehicle by reference to its plate having been ‘read’ by the ANPR cameras which are installed at regular intervals along our road network.
My client Alistair and his wife Deborah are Directors of a small business whose registered address is also the couple’s home in Surrey, where they live with their children.
The business is the owner and registered keeper of a Ford van.
At approximately 18.00 on 17 August 2021, West Mercia Police (WMP) emailed Surrey Police to request that a log be created to deploy Officers to Alistair and Deborah’s address in relation to a “Class A drugs investigation”.
WMP advised that two vehicles had been witnessed to make off from the scene of a potential drug deal. One of these vehicles bore the same plate number as my client’s van and West Mercia Police believed that it might be transporting drugs; they had obtained the couple’s address via DVLA records for the plate and informed Surrey Police that the suspect van had recently “pinged” (i.e been recorded passing) an ANPR camera in Surrey.
Surrey Police allocated the job to their “Proactive and Priority Crime Team” and that evening applied to the Magistrates Court for a search warrant for Alistair’s house. In the warrant application, the Officer asserted that “ANPR analysis” had been carried out on the suspect van and it had been shown to be present in Surrey. In fact, it now seems likely that Surrey did not in fact carry out any ANPR analysis, but the Court would not have been aware of this.
Just before midnight on 17 August 2021, when the family were in bed, Surrey Police Officers attended the house, forced entry by smashing in the front door and multiple windows and detained Alistair and Deborah in handcuffs. The couple and their two teenage children were utterly shocked and could not believe what was happening to them.
Officers swarmed through the house, crunching shattered glass beneath their boots, and Alistair was arrested, escorted to a van and then taken to Custody. Deborah and the children were told that they had to immediately dress, pack their backs and leave the house whilst it was searched; they were allowed to go to a relative’s for the night, but not before having to hand over their phones and ipads. They left the house, devastated by this midsummer nightmare…
According to the Custody Record, Alistair was arrested at 01.05 on 18 August 2021 and the reason to arrest was recorded as “Drugs Trigger – MD71179 – concerned in the supply of a Class A drug.”
Following processing, Alistair was placed in a cell overnight.
Between 11.46 – 12.28, Alistair was taken for interview during which he protested his innocence, gave an account of his comings and goings the previous day and disavowed any involvement with the alleged ‘drug deal’.
Meanwhile, Surrey Police Officers then carried out ANPR checks on the registration plate of Alistair’s van, which showed that the plate had ‘somehow’ triggered ANPR cameras in both West Mercia and Surrey between 12.59 – 14.10 on 17 August… In other words, the vehicle was showing as being in ‘two places at once’ as it was simply not physically possible for the same van to have moved between these various locations in the short time between ANPR ‘hits’, which were recorded as follows-
12.59 in West Mercia
13.04 in Surrey
13.14 in Surrey
13.21 in West Mercia
13.24 in Surrey
14.10 in West Mercia
Bear in mind the obvious geographical absurdity presented by this list, to which the existence of a ‘clone’ is the only logical explanation – Surrey lies to the south of London, whilst West Mercia borders Wales, and is separated from Surrey by the Police areas of Gloucestershire, Thames Valley, Wiltshire and Hampshire.
It therefore quickly dawned on the investigating officers that Alistair’s business vehicle’s plate number had been cloned and he had no involvement in the alleged crime and at 12.39. He was released with no further action.
The truth is that all of the terror, heartache, and humilitation which Alistair and his family experienced could so easily have been avoided had Surrey Police carried out proper ANPR checks before applying for the search warrant on the evening of 17 August (a process which generates almost instant results). It is most disturbing that the Police either did not bother to do so, or if they did, catastrophically misinterpreted the data, before obtaining a warrant from the Court, which clearly issued that warrant in reliance on Surrey’s assertion that the evidence was backed up by a (competent) “ANPR analysis.”
When I pressed the solicitors acting for Surrey Police on this issue, all they were able to say was the following –
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to locate the data detailing the ANPR checks completed prior to the application of the warrant. This is not to say that those checks have not been done but simply we are unable to locate documentary evidence of the same. We have only been able to locate the post execution of the warrant further ANPR checks, which we enclose a copy of for completeness…”
This is the 21st century and the ANPR system is entirely computerised; we are not dealing with filing cabinets full of papers here. The inescapable conclusion was that either:
- the warrant was procured on a false basis (ANPR checks had not been carried out) and so the Court was misled and a decision to arrest was made without crucial and easily obtainable information, or
- the ANPR checks had been done on 17 August and Surrey Police failed to draw the proper and reasonable conclusion from these checks i.e. that the suspect vehicle in question was a clone.
This was transparent from the checks which were actually carried out on 18 August, and would have been equally transparent had Surrey Police actually and/or competently carried out the purported ANPR analysis on 17 August 2021.
I am pleased to confirm that I have now settled the claims of Alistair, Deborah and their children for substantial awards of damages and an agreement to pay legal costs.
I trust that Surrey Police will learn lessons from this and take steps to ensure that the investigative tools available to them are utilised correctly, and to avoid other innocent people suffering this kind of terrifying experience, especially given the increasing number of ‘cloned plates’ on our roads. In this as in other matters, it is requisite that the Police use brains as well as brawn, and do not rush in where ANPR angels fear to tread.
Iain Gould - Actions Against the Police Solicitor 
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