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Gazette - Plate scanners help nab traffic offenders

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NEWS NOTES

By Caroline Ross

This B.C. traffic enforcement vehicle has four ALPR cameras mounted on the light bar. Infrared illuminators allow the cameras to operate in any light or weather conditions.

British Columbia (B.C.) police have a new tool in their traffic enforcement arsenal: automated licence plate recognition (ALPR).

Nine Vancouver-area police vehicles are now equipped with ALPR systems as part of an RCMP Traffic Services pilot project. The systems automatically recognize and scan the licence plates of passing cars using closed circuit television cameras, then run the plate numbers through police and motor vehicle databases, instantly flagging unlicenced and prohibited drivers, as well as vehicles that are uninsured, stolen or implicated in other crimes.

“(ALPR) has allowed us to check a very, very large volume of vehicles and to identify a larger percentage of people who shouldn’t be on the road,” says RCMP Cst Duane Hillier of the Fraser Valley Integrated Road Safety Unit.

Hillier has been using ALPR technology since the pilot project began in October 2006. He says he’s sometimes able to check over 3,000 plates during a 12-hour shift — thousands more than would be possible using manual plate-checking processes.

According to a 2007 review of ALPR by the University College of the Fraser Valley, individuals who consistently violate traffic regulations are often linked to other criminal activities. For example, the report states, “one-third of people who illegally parked in disabled parking spots had a previous criminal record, . . . and one-fifth were of immediate police interest or were known or suspected of having involvement with other criminal activities.”

In B.C., where there are a limited number of roadways entering and exiting the province, strategically located ALPR units could help police intercept people moving stolen vehicles or drugs, says Warren Nelson, ALPR project co-ordinator with Traffic Services.

Nelson is awaiting the results of a privacy impact assessment before determining whether to expand ALPR into other urban centres.

ALPR-equipped cars scanned a total of 661,155 licence plates and flagged 13,210 database hits between February 2007 and January 2008.

ALPR is widely used in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, where all police forces have been using the technology since 2001.

Police agencies in the Winnipeg and Toronto areas also employ ALPR.