It's getting very close to that here in the good 'ol USA. Our city has outfitted plate readers to the patrol cars now.
The LEO's won't say what all they can be used for. They say they ae only for checking for stolen vehicles. Ooooook,yeah,right.
If they use the system that we developed down here, which is highly unlikely because the USA by & large refuses to use technology developed outside the USA , this is what the local cameras do
1) check if the vehicle is registered
2) check the vehicle is not stolen
3) check if the registered owner has a drivers license
4) check if any one at the registered garaging address has a cancelled or suspended drivers license
5) check if any one at the garaging address has any outstanding warrants ( including the driver )
6) check the child support to see if the vehicle owner has an order against them and if it is up to date
7) do the same as above for the known family members ( common for suspended drivers to swap vehicles to avoid detection )
8) check if there are any unpaid fines associated with that plate
9) check that the plate belongs to the vehicle ( if the make & model was recognised )
10) Check the criminal record of the registered owners & all associated with the vehicle &/or registered address
11 ) Check the bail record to see if any one associated with the vehicle is currently on bail or has a court attendance notice
12) check the fire arms registry to see if any one associated with the vehicle or the supposed driver has a fire arm ( only done if one of the above is flagged )
If any of those fail then the car automatically lights up & the cop has to pull you over
The one exception is if it fails & there are firearms linked in which case the cop still has to pull over the vehicle but only after back up arrives .
They are constantly adding more cross refferencing but it is a slow process as two or more government departments have to agree to use a common data base platform so it can be read real time as the plate goes past at 80 mph in the opposite direction .
I know some one who works in the IT section that runs the system .
The fixed cameras they use for traffic control also check the vehicle profile to see if the plate on the vehicle matches the shape of the vehicle it should be on.
That information currently is just logged but it will eventually be either passed on the police so you can be intercepted or to infringement processing so the plate will be deregistered on the spot thus the next time it passes a patrol car you will be pinched and this system can tell the difference between types of trailers & their size
Right now they are up against band with limits .
The logic behind this was originally to catch unlicensed drivers because if they have a collision their insurance policy is void .
This made it acceptable to the general public
To get the cops on board they use this system to abandon the 3am raids to catch escaped prisioners & make arrests .
Being that in a car on the side of the road they present less threat to the police than in their own home .
It is a gross loss of individual freedoms and a massive invasion of personal privacy.
Originally it was just a license , registration & warrant check but like all of these "big brother" ideas it suffered mission creep & has become the monster it is now days .
Waiting in the wings is average speed cameras being applied to all vehicles , not just heavy transport .
Been tested for a long while & is worth a staggering $38,000,000 in speeding fines that could have beed issued so financial pressures will cause it to be activated.
Trucks allowed average speed fines to come in provided spot fines for exceeding the limit by less than 20kph got abolished which they did .
This is because they sold off roadside mobile speed cameras to a private contractor and they of course put them at the bottom of every big hill .