Justice Min. wants to store license plate photos, despite privacy concerns

Minister Ard van der Steur of Security and Justice is pushing through with a law that will allow the police to store traffic camera photos showing license plates for up to four weeks. These photos are to be used for crime detection, despite serious objections by privacy organizations, RTL Nieuws reports. For an "additional guarantee for privacy protection" the police will only be allowed to access the license plate information after getting permission from the Public Prosecutor and only if there is a "specific reason" for looking at it, Van der Steur wrote to parliament on Wednesday. The so-called ANPR bill, which deals with the automatic registration of license plates, has been a topic for debate in the Tweede Kamer - the lower house of Dutch parliament - for some time. In 2011 the Personal Data Authority stated that the bill gives the police the power to "put all passers-by on Dutch roads in police files as potential suspects". According to the Authority, that is only allowed under extreme circumstances, which is not the case here.