ERP 2 data to be used for crime prevention and criminal investigations from Jan 2027

Data collected and utilised as part of the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) 2 system can be used by law enforcement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Transport (MOT) said in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 3).

While ERP 2.0 is designed primarily for road pricing, parliamentary replies on Nov 3 shed further light on how data from the system may be accessed and used for law enforcement and criminal investigations. 

Much like ERP 1, ERP 2 supports functions related to motoring, including the enforcement of laws and regulations, Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling said.

She explained that although data collected on individual vehicles is aggregated and anonymised when transferred to LTA's backend systems for traffic planning and management, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) can retrieve location data from sensors and systems when specific vehicles need to be identified for enforcement purposes.

"LTA has done this for enforcement against serious offences such as illegal cross-border taxi services and for detecting deregistered vehicles," she said. "Like all other Government data, ERP 2 data will be subject to existing statutory obligations."

Sun was responding to a Parliamentary question filed by Tin Pei Ling, who asked whether data collected by ERP 2 might support enforcement and investigations by other Government agencies.

In a separate parliamentary question, Jackson Lam asked whether police or other Home Team agencies would be able to access ERP 2.0 vehicle-specific data for criminal investigations or national security purposes, and what legal basis and safeguards would govern such access.

In response, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Goh Pei Ming shared that the Home Team plans to begin using ERP 2 data from January 2027 to prevent, detect and solve crimes.

He shared that Home Team agencies are already authorised by law to obtain information from all available sources, including sensors. 

For example, under Section 20 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the police may order the production of any document or other thing that is necessary or desirable for an investigation, inquiry, trial or other proceeding.

"ERP 2 data will be subject to safeguards on its access and use, as with other data used by the Home Team," he added. 

Moreover, the police will hold data obtained only for the duration needed to fulfil the purpose it was accessed for, Goh said.

He continued: "Where the data used is for criminal investigations or court proceedings, the police will likewise retain the data for as long as necessary to complete the investigation or to complete the court proceedings."

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khooyihang@asiaone.com