In reply to:
....none other than an invasion of your civil liberties, as many have argued.
But, if storing those numbers, which I assume the equipment does, leads to catching one of the terrorists that threaten us all, I'll be the last to complain.
Ahh yes.
But where do you draw the line here?
How many terrorists do think it is fair to catch to justify the potential invasion of hundreds of thousands or even millions of innocent people's civil liberties?
1, 2, a hundred? A thousand?, none?
Hmm, its a difficult problem I agree, but there are no simple answers.
I also fail to see how, storing car number plates in a database actually helps prevent terrorist attacks or to track down terrorists - except maybe after the fact (e.g. after a terrorist attack), but even then would this evidence stand up in court?
[as presumably all such terrorists will be subject to a fair trial].
There is presumably no actual ability with this system to prove who the driver was at the time the number plate was recorded - so how can you say "we know this (alleged) terrorist was at the wheel of this car as it speed away from the scene of the crime" or "we know you were driving this car on the way to a terrorist attack" ?
And of course, there is always the situation of people making up fake number plates to fool this sort of system - its happened in other crimes I know of, where a car has had its (distinctive) number plate cloned and another car the same make,model and colour was driven around in a totally different part of the country hundred of miles away for the precise purposes of giving the car, an alibi.
If these "terrorists" can make up fake id cards, and probably passports as well, as has been reported in the media, then any attempt to use number plates as a tracking device is equally doomed to failure as they start a business of making copies of other people number plates.
And its not like Number Plates have anti-forgery devices in them like money, passports and some ID cards - all you need is some Yellow Plastic (in the UK) and a tin of Black Paint or some black plastic stick on letters and you're done - fake number plate factory in business.
Whats next - finger-print ID devices in the steering wheel of every car so that the driver of the car can also be proven at the time?