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A police force is fighting a legal ruling which could pave the way for thousands of secret traffic cameras across Britain to be revealed.

Devon and Cornwall Police claim revealing the locations of its 45 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras would hinder crime fighting.

Their locations were requested under Freedom of Information laws by Guardian Government Computing, which appealed to the Information Rights Tribunal (IRT).

The IRT found in favour of the publication, ordering the information be disclosed within 35 days.

More than 10,000 covert cameras photograph and record the registration numbers of motorists every day. The information is used against a national database to track criminals and has proved vital in tackling criminals.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said the force was appealing. "The force continues to take legal advice and is also consulting the Association of Chief Police Officers FOI Central Referral Unit as part of the process," he said.

"The force believes that revealing the exact location of ANPR sites will seriously reduce their impact as a crime-fighting tool in identifying suspects and offenders.

"There is no doubt that since the advent of ANPR the police's ability to proactively target criminals on the road network has increased dramatically.

"Showing a criminal the exact location of a camera will make those cameras easier to avoid and thus make capturing criminals more difficult.

"While the force accepts the need for transparency and the public's right to information whenever possible, revealing the location of covert policing resources goes far and beyond this."

Steven Mathieson, the news editor at Guardian Government Computing sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in July 2009 asking for the location of the cameras. The police force refused, claiming that revealing where they had been placed would "be likely to prejudice the prevention of crime”. Mr. Mathieson then appealed to the Information Rights Tribunal, which found in his favour last month and decided on the 35 day limit for disclosure. Their ruling stated:
"The tribunal considers that there was, overall, a weak case made by the additional party (Devon and Cornwall Police) as to why it thought that disclosure of the information sought would be likely to prejudice policing."
"The tribunal considers that in all the circumstances, the public interest falls on the side of disclosure in this case, so as to allow for debate about the strategic use of the cameras and the reasons for their deployment."