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Bags have been placed over more than 200 cameras in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts of Birmingham. A total of 218 cameras - some of them hidden - were put up in various locations across the areas.Of those, 106 were Automatic Number Plate Recognition devices which were able to record car registrations as they moved around the areas.

In a statement in April, the Safer Birmingham Project (SBP) said it had received £3m from the Home Office to improve community safety and reduce crime in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook wards.

However, it has since emerged the cash had come through the Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM) fund, which is administered by the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo).

The SBP - a partnership of the police, the city council and other agencies - said on Thursday: "Although the counter-terrorism unit was responsible for identifying and securing central government funds and has overseen the technical aspects of the installation, the camera sites were chosen on the basis of general crime data - not just counter-terrorism intelligence."