
Police number plate camera scheme broke law in Royston (UK) - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23433138
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StavrosK
I seem to recall a story where a town put some traffic cameras on its roads,
and a guy printed the mayor's license plate on a piece of cardboard and stuck
it on the back of his car and proceeded to speed through the camera a few
times.

Sounds pretty effective to me!

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twic
The thing that annoys me most is that the locals referred to this palisade of
cameras as a "ring of steel". Surely it's a ring of glass?

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HeXetic
Probably this in reference to the steel towers and girders upon which the
cameras are mounted.

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michaelt
"Ring of steel" was the term used for the road blocks, barbed wire and
railings around central Belfast in the 1970s, when bombings there were common
[1]. In this case it was literally steel barriers encircling the city centre.
It was not a continuous ring of steel, as buildings formed parts of the
barriers.

It's also the term used for the covert ring of CCTV cameras and checkpoints
erected in the City of London [2] in 1993 in response to bishopsgate bombing.
It shares the property of encircling the centre of a city for security
purposes, but is not literally a ring of steel. At one point people would have
recognised this as a reference to Belfast's situation.

[1] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/belfast-security-
measur...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/belfast-security-measures-
accepted-as-normal-people-in-belfast-have-become-accustomed-to-police-checks-
and-the-ring-of-steel-which-protects-the-citys-commercial-heart-david-
mckittrick-reports-1562036.html)

[2] [http://henriwilliams.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/entering-
panopti...](http://henriwilliams.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/entering-panopticon-
study-of-ring-of.html) [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/londons-ring-of-
steel-to-e...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/londons-ring-of-steel-to-
expand-1313139.html)

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harrytuttle
Strangely enough I just considered moving to Royston as it's slap bang between
Cambridge and London.

This has changed my mind instantly.

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alexkus
Royston seems to take the worst of both places and the good bits of neither.

(I grew up just South of Cambridge and went to school not far from Royston;
and I now live in London. For a while I commuted between the two by motorbike,
passing Royston every day.)

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harrytuttle
Indeed I have discovered that. Decided on Ely instead.

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Yaa101
We only serve local people!!

