The Times (London) July 03, 2003
US surveillance will track every car
By Tim Reid
The Pentagon is developing a surveillance system that would use computers and thousands of cameras to track, record and analyse the movement of every vehicle in a city.
The project, that excites police forces and appalls privacy groups in equal measure, is designed to help the US military to protect troops and fight in foreign cities.
But police, scientists and privacy experts all agree that the technology, which is neither classified nor legally limited to military use, could easily be adapted for domestic law enforcement and surveillance. The key to the project, informally named Combat Zones That See, is new software capable of automatically identifying vehicles by size, colour, shape and number plate, or drivers and passengers by face.
Software is also being designed to give instant alerts after detecting a vehicle with a number plate held on a "watch list", or search records to locate and compare vehicles seen near terrorist activities.
The project is being overseen by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is helping the Pentagon to develop new technologies for combating terrorism and fighting wars in the 21st century. "One can easily foresee pressure to adopt a similar approach to crime-ridden areas of American cities or to the Super Bowl or any site where crowds gather," Steven Aftergood, of the American Federation of Scientists, said.
John Pike, a Washington defence analyst, said: "Once Darpa demonstrates that it can be done, a number of companies would likely develop their own version in the hope of getting contracts from local police, nuclear plant security, shopping centres, even people looking for deadbeat dads."
Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the research agency, said that the technology was not intended for domestic law enforcement and could not be used for "other applic- ations without extensive modifications".
According to the agency, 40 million cameras are in use around the world, with 300 million expected by 2005. Britain has an estimated 2.5 million closed circuit television cameras, more than half operated by government agencies, and on average a Londoner is thought to be photographed 300 times a day.
It has also emerged that the Pentagon is planning a new generation of weapons, including giant unmanned drones operating from space, that will allow the US to strike without using foreign bases.
Copyright © 2003, Times Newspapers Limited
