Sir – The report (January 22) that number plate recognition cameras are to be installed in and around Oxford is the latest demonstration of the terrifying power of the modern state to intrude on the privacy of its citizens. We are told that these devices are to be used “solely to provide traffic information to motorists”; indiscriminate and unrestricted acquisition of the details of journeys undertaken by private motorists cannot be necessary for that purpose.

One of the most frightening aspects of this development is the complacent acceptance of the situation implied in the casual way it was reported. No contribution from our elected representatives in your issue of January 22 and an editorial for which the most generous description I can devise is “comatose”. The author of the assertion that “those of us going about our lawful business will have nothing to fear” would do well to recall that every new law has the potential to create a new class of lawbreaker. It could be you next. By way of consolation we are assured that our movements are not to be pried into by agencies of Government. Who is the source of that assurance? An employee of the county’s “Congestion Management Team”. Is he going to protect us from the encroachments of the database state? No.

These plans for further extension to the already huge apparatus of public snooping should be rejected by anyone who still subscribes to the idea that the state is our servant not our gaoler.

If you can’t be bothered for yourselves do it for your children, many of whom may not be grateful to inherit a country in which their every action and movement is subject state surveillance.

PR Hughes, Oxford