National Surveillance Camera Day - Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)

Our Take

Credit to Heddlu De Cymru | South Wales Police for at least being upfront about what they're doing: this video is a straight-up marketing push for automatic number plate recognition, dressed up as a 'national conversation' about surveillance cameras. It's worth watching precisely because it shows how a government agency talks about ANPR when it wants public buy-in — friendly, procedural, reassuring.

Here's the part that should make American readers uneasy: the UK, for all its camera-heavy reputation, actually has a Surveillance Camera Commissioner and a published national strategy that this video is literally promoting. In the US, there's no such office watching Flock Safety. No commissioner, no mandated 'transparency day,' no oversight framework — just thousands of ALPR cameras quietly going up in neighborhoods, school zones, and gas station parking lots with a patchwork of local policies (or none at all).

If a country with a dedicated surveillance camera regulator still needs a PR campaign to convince people ANPR is fine, that tells you something about how contested this technology is everywhere. Don't wait for someone else to hold a 'transparency day' in your town — check our map to see what's already watching your plate, and hit take action if you want to push back.