I was followed today by a marked up police van with cctv monitoring written accros the front, it had a large opaque bar accros the top rather than a light bar. Are these constantly videoing when moving and the footage checked back at the nick for fines to be sent out or are they ANPR, or just deployed to potential trouble spots? First time I've seen one:O

Could it have been one of the things they send to riots and trouble at football grounds, so instead of getting involved they just video record all the criminals and sit eating pies in the van?

That was my first thought but at the time it was travelling I couldn't think of any reason for it to be out.

sounds like a mobile recording place where they view the tapes at a later date and issue a few pics to the local papers/tv

oh and for streetwars on sky.

These are a common site at the nick near I work in North Yorkshire. I'm sure they have 2 or 3 of them

I'm pretty certain they are sent to "trouble spots" rather than being a traffic cop thing - I've seen them hanging around the town centre - but I don't know for sure.