Police are holding nearly half a BILLION pictures of Scots drivers photographed by a secretive network of spy cameras, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The images were captured by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, the exact locations of which police refuse to disclose, and which were originally designed to tackle organised crime and terrorism.
However, their use has now led to the accumulation of the staggering number of photos, which equates to 150 of every vehicle and its driver in Scotland – the vast majority of which have committed no crime.
Campaigners and politicians say it means drivers in Scotland are among the ‘most spied upon in the world’ and warned of the ‘rapid rate’ at which the technology was now advancing.
In addition to the sheer number of images, campaigners have also voiced concerns over the growing capabilities of the technology, which was initially designed to detect the most serious crime, but which is now understood to be able to capture ‘behaviour … not just of drivers, but vehicle occupants too’.