Ministry: Ministry of Security and Justice

This ministry contains 5 sections.

Retention period of images of number plate recognition soon to be four weeks

News item | 05-01-2012

All number plates recorded automatically with cameras by the police will soon be kept for four weeks in order to be able to investigate crimes and arrest fugitives. The Dutch Government agreed to this on a proposal submitted by Minister Opstelten (Security and Justice). The police are currently not permitted to keep all images of number plates in order to consult them later on. Yet, this may be important for the investigation of crimes. The period of four weeks also applies to the storage of images of municipal surveillance cameras.

Serious crimes

Following a report or the discovery of an offence, the police will soon be able to investigate whether a suspect’s car was seen on a specific place. The data stored temporarily may only be used for the investigation of serious crimes and the arrest of suspects or convicted persons on the run.

Privacy

In addition to the image of the number plate and the vehicle, data on the location, the date, and the time are also kept. The name of the party in whose name the vehicle is registered is not stored. In order to be able to protect the privacy of citizens, the vehicle registration data will only be accessible by police officers authorised to this end. The legislative proposal will be sent to the Council of State for its opinion.

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