Technology to make roads safer for all reaches Northland
Technology to make roads safer for all users reaches Northland
Police is expanding its use of automated technology to catch criminals and make the roads safer for all users.
Northland has recently received a vehicle with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, which has already proven successful in removing high risk drivers, unsafe vehicles and criminals from the roads.
Northland
Road Policing Senior Sergeant John Fagan says during the
last two weeks officers have been trained in the use of this
new and exciting technology and it has already proven itself
as a useful tool for police to detect high risk drivers,
stolen vehicles and other vehicles of interest.
During
training last week staff located a stolen vehicle from
Auckland travelling north near Whakapara. The two occupants
were arrested and now face charges relating to the theft of
the vehicle.
The technology, which has been in use by Police since 2009 in five patrol vehicles, is widely used overseas, and in August this year Assistant Commissioner Road Policing, Dave Cliff announced that the system was going to being fitted in an additional 13 vehicles in the Police fleet. The vehicles have been rolled out to police districts and the Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit.
Using cameras mounted on the roof of the patrol vehicle, the ANPR system scans the number plates of passing vehicles and feeds the information to a computer inside the vehicle. The system instantly checks the details against information already held by Police about vehicles of interest, and if found, it alerts the officer for follow up.
Mr Fagan says Northland has experienced all sorts of
weather conditions over the last few weeks and the ANPR
system operates equally well in rain or fog, day or
night.
"This vehicle will be deployed across the
Northland Policing District with the possibility of a second
vehicle being available for operations by our Commercial
Vehicle Investigation Unit."
The ANPR unit only captures
the number plates of those vehicles that are of interest to
police, such as those that may have been ordered of the road
or are otherwise unsafe, or that have been used in
crime.
It does not capture any personal information about
drivers or passengers, and is operated without disrupting
law-abiding road users.
The technology simply automates a
process police normally have to do manually via an officer
calling a radio dispatcher – and accesses information that
police already hold.
Mr Cliff says it's important to
stress that the technology is vehicle-focused, so average
law-abiding road users have nothing to worry about. However,
it has proven a very effective tool for police in removing
unsafe vehicles and high risk drivers from the roads –
including those who are disqualified or otherwise forbidden
to drive – as well as capturing wanted criminals.
"The
law-abiding public tell us they don't want to be sharing the
roads with these kinds of people, and the rollout of these
additional units will help Police to keep the public
safer.
"That has been supported by our experience with
ANPR to date, which reveals strong links between unsafe
vehicles, unsafe drivers and criminality. Use of ANPR has
led to the arrest and conviction of criminals for offences
other than those for which they have been stopped, making it
a valuable tool in fighting crime."
Mr Fagan says this was highlighted in Northland when a vehicle was reported as having driven off from a Tikipunga petrol station without paying for the fuel. Two hours later the same vehicle was detected by the ANPR system and stopped south of Whangarei. The driver turned out to be a disqualified and her passenger had three warrants for her arrest resulting in the vehicle being impounded and court appearances for the occupants.
The units cost $35-40k each, including installation into the vehicles. Depending on traffic flow, the ANPR unit is capable of scanning up to 3000 plates in one hour. Units will be located where it is possible for the police to safely intercept vehicles without undue risk to staff or other road users.
ends