Why should innocent drivers have photos of their vehicles kept for 30 days, CLA asks, as the ACT Government is about to introduce a new speed detection system? Keep the photos of those exceeding the speed limit, by all means, but why should innocent people, obeying the speed limit, have images kept for 30 days? Technology should be used to delete photos of the innocent within hours, CLA says.

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MEDIA RELEASE                                                                                           25 August 2011

Missing the Point on Point-to-Point Speed Cameras

Civil Liberties Australia is concerned point-to-point speed cameras in the ACT will place private personal information of innocent drivers at risk for no reason.

“Speed cameras are important to help reduce injury and death, but we don't think it’s reasonable for the ACT Government to hold a photographic record of every car passing a point-to-point camera for 30 days when the driver was obeying the speed limit,” said Civil Liberties Director Tim Vines.

“Government assurances that they’ll treat this information appropriately wring hollow when the proposed legislation doesn’t include rigorous safeguards.

“Information on where and when you were driving would, under this legislation, be available to police for purposes other than road safety, raising the question: are these cameras to reduce road accidents, as the government claims, or to be a common policing tool?

Civil Liberties Australia is concerned the legislation would allow a broad class of people to access the recorded image of a car's numberplate. For example, in a divorce case, your former partner  could subpoena this information to prove you weren't working late in the office one month but were driving home from the club, or mistress. Or an employer could seek these images as evidence that you were not driving home by your usual, direct route and so they don't have to pay you worker's compensation.

“We want our roads safe, but we also want people’s privacy respected. If you're over the speed limit it's fair for the police to have access to the image; but if you're innocent then your image should be deleted, speedily.”

“There’s no technical reason why the captured image of innocent drivers obeying the law can’t be deleted immediately, or within a few hours,” Mr Vines said.