THE ACT Government’s point-to-point speed cameras can be used for car tracking by unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones”,  according to minutes released under freedom of information to the Opposition.

“This shocking revelation from an Australian Federal Police representative on
the Point-to-Point Camera Steering Committee shows the cameras could be used
for drones to follow ‘vehicles of interest’ until police interception could be
performed,” said  Liberal transport services spokesman  Alistair Coe.

The June 2010 minutes record the AFP spokesman as saying: “….a specific benefit would derive if the P2P cameras were linked to UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) which could track vehicles of interest until police interception could be safely performed.”

The representative also said the cameras could be used to detect other vehicles of interest, the minutes saying: “…The use of the P2P cameras to detect unregistered, stolen and other vehicles of interest would provide ongoing and longer-term benefits of the project.”

Mr Coe said: “This confirms my concerns about the capacity for point-to-point cameras to be used for mass surveillance, with every single car that passes being tracked in a centralised database.

“This government is incompetent at securely managing records and cannot be
trusted with such a database. Last year, under their guidance, secret cabinet
documents and the personal details of more than 15,000 public servants were
made available to bureaucracy and political offices through an unprotected
computer network.

“I’m yet to see any evidence of safeguards to ensure this won’t happen with the
point-to-point camera database.”