Hat tip to the Instapundit:
From the Times Online [UK]:
- Statistics from the 2001 census show that the highest black population in any borough is no greater than about 25%. The proportion of black people across the capital [London] as a whole is about 11%.
- Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has signed off a report by his force’s traffic unit which shows that black people account for 46% of all arrests.
With these two facts being made public ethnic minority communities and leaders believe they are unfairly targeted by the police. After all they’re receiving half of the arrests while only compromising a tenth of the population.
But the problem with that argument is that these traffic arrests were generated by London Police’s new automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras.
 |
The technology allows car registration plates to be scanned and automatically run through databases to determine whether a vehicle is stolen, uninsured or has not had its road tax paid. |
Huh? How can there be any racial profiling of a particular group when the “person” recording the crimes is a computer attached to a traffic camera? The Met has deployed six mobile ANPR camera units in the capital. When a suspect vehicle is identified, police officers are sent to intercept the driver.
The report says: “It is worth stating that out of all our activities, this is the one area where the officer has minimal discretion as they respond to an electronic matching process.”
Watch for these cameras, and their automatic notifying of officers to intercept those with criminal backgrounds, to suddenly disappear. Political correctness is a shield against personal responsibility.
And don’t laugh at London – holding individuals accountable for their actions is also not allowed in the United States when it negatively impacts a “protected” group.
