i was lucky enough to join a met police ANPR team this afternoon where a number of arrests were made following an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operation, on Uxbridge Road, Hillingdon.
three people were arrested on suspicion of immigration.
one person was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
one person was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.
three people were arrested on suspicion of drug offences.
eight cars were seized.
i personally believe the use of ANPR technology is proving to be excellent at identifying and catching offenders. ANPR technology allows the police to use international, national and local intelligence databases to target criminals using the roads throughout the force day or night.
today’s criminal is a mobile criminal. ANPR technology is giving police the tools they need to tackle these criminals, allowing them to identify known prolific offenders, traffic offenders and provides a huge amount of intelligence on criminals’ movements.
the real beauty of ANPR is that it identifies only vehicles that are suspected of being involved in criminality and is therefore an efficient means of targeting offenders.
ANPR is helping to target serious drug and violent offenders as well as those contravening the Road Traffic Act. While most motorists are not criminals, most criminals are motorists. It also serves as high-visibility policing, helping to reassure the public.
well done ANPR!
lets hope the recent spate of bike theft’s ride into one of these!.
Well lucky I didn’t go up the Uxbridge Road today then! Nah jokes… I got pulled on my Aprilia RS125 nearer the grapes end of the uxbridge Road a while back with ANPR and the officers were cool as I didn’t have no L Plates but knew I was ok with Insurance and all and told me to get some L’s soon and off I went!
This is good for cars, but I’m not so sure it will be that good for us bikers. Most bikes that are stolen are used for spare parts or track bikes. Also if anyone is on a stolen bike I doubt they will pull over as they can get away so easy.
I have hurd of bikes being checked for stolen parts at track days so atleast things are looking up
Forgot to add that it is good for us as they get the idiots with out insurance, licences and tax off the road to help make it safer.
Looks good, I’m a big proponent of ANPR. It’s not an overly aggressive form of monitoring, like the rather scary stuff that software can do via CCTV cameras and a central control room. But surely it doesn’t work for bikes, as they have no forward-facing numberplate to scan?
Always thought you wouldn’t have to wait around long for a load of car-crims to pass by. I wonder how many quickly terminated phone calls and hastly fastened seat belts could have been witnessed 100yrds up the road?
ANPR can be used to read the front or back of vehicles, so it can get bikes if it is facing the right way. Still, we are all law abiding people so we have nothing to worry about…
In Rome, the police have a system called Christine (from the Stephen King novel): it’s a computer system in the front of the patrol car that scans every plate it sees and flashes up on a screen inside the car if that particular vehicle has been reported stolen.
yeah - lots of Met cars have the ANPR system in their cars - i’ve seen them stop people who just drove past in Clapham before because something flashed up…
Here’s hoping it can spot vehicle ID theft - when the van guys nick the plates from another van and stick them on…
Anything that gets uninsured/unlicensed fcuktards off the road is a good thing, although I do worry about the other potential big brother applications for ANPR
Nah jokes… I got pulled on my Aprilia RS125 nearer the grapes end of the uxbridge Road a while back with ANPR and the officers were cool as I didn’t have no L Plates but knew I was ok with Insurance and all and told me to get some L’s soon and off I went!
so we have nothing to worry about…