Criminals using Britain’s roads as a means of escape may soon have nowhere to hide. And neither will anyone else, for that matter.

Meredydd Hughes, head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers, is pushing a plan to place automatic number plate recognition cameras – which can read the license plates of passing cars – every 400 yards along Britain’s roads, according to The London Times.

But the plan doesn’t stop there. Hughes wants to put cameras in supermarket parking lots, fuel stations and in town centers. The idea, he said, is to “deny criminals the use of the roads.”

Critics, however, argue that the system will also monitor millions of law-abiding citizens.

Details captured by the camera will be stored in a computer system for at least two years, The Times reported, even if the owner has not committed a crime.

The cameras will be monitored at a control center in London, which will open in April 2006 and will be monitored by officers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The cameras will be linked to the national computer system used by Britain’s police force, and will also allow police to track which vehicles are not registered or do not have insurance.