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Automated Crime Fighting in Leicestershire
Posted on 20/02/2008
R. Reed
A total of 191 vehicles were seized by Leicestershire Constabularys Road Policing Unit for offences relating to driving without insurance and vehicle tax during the month of January.
Officers from the Road Policing Unit and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) team arrested six drivers for a variety of offences. 113 motorists were reported for summons and will appear before magistrates and 81 drivers were issued a fixed penalty notices, many of which were for the sum of £200 for driving without insurance.
The ANPR system uses computerized optical character recognition to try to automatically read the licence plates of moving vehicles in less than a second. The increased use of this technology increases the incentive for the less scrupulous members of society to clone licence plates in order to circumvent detection for the non payment of road tax. This can be difficult to detect, especially as cloners may change the registration plates and travel behaviour to hinder investigations. The UK has an widespread Automatic number plate recognition CCTV network. Effectively, the police and Security services track all car whereabouts around the country and are capable of tracking any car in what is approaching real time. Vehicle movements can then stored in a database for 5 years at the National ANPR Data Centre to be analyzed for intelligence and to be used for evidence.
Criticism of automated ANPR systems has centred on misidentification (through bad technology or cloned plates) and the beginning of a slippery slope to an automated justice system where a machine classifies people as offenders. Others have said that this technology is another way to maximize revenue to the state rather than promote road safety.
Sgt Ivan Stafford, from the Road Policing Unit said: "Drivers who go about our roads without insurance or the correct type of licence can expect little mercy. They face the impounding of their car, its probable destruction, a fine of up to £5,000 and between six and eight penalty points.
"Police are now able to check quickly whether a vehicle is insured or not thanks to the co-operation with the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) database so if you cant afford insurance, you cant afford to drive; its that simple.
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