High-Tech Policing

I have just driven back from Tescos, and on the way I passed through a large Police checkpoint. There was the van with the Automatic Number Plate Recognition, a lift truck to remove any really dodgy vehicles, three traffic cars, six motorbikes and a couple of vans. Officers were busily interviewing the first crop of drivers whose vehicles showed no tax or insurance on the database. Lots of other crime gets picked up by these checks, and I am quite happy with that.

I was struck by the contrast between the hundreds of thousands of poundsworth of high technology kit that was deployed and my humble courthouse, where we are not provided with a computer link to the DVLA, so if a defendant turns up without bringing his driving licence we have to adjourn the case for three weeks while we send off for a paper printout of the driver's record.