The police have positioned themselves at the centre of a spreading web of surveillance cameras run by two private companies.
They can tap into footage from hundreds if not thousands of cameras that are continuously reading car number plates.
In addition, they have spent years helping develop a private platform of almost 5000 CCTV cameras.
The police have just issued new rules that massively extend how long they can keep the number plate footage for.
Reporter Phil Pennington is looking into this.
