Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)
Criminals pay no respect to local, national or international boundaries and the development of the principles of intelligence led policing has underlined the importance of access to the most current and accurate information by the law enforcement community. Another central criminal intelligence system that the Criminal Justice business area manages is the Automatic Number Plate Recogntition (ANPR) system.
What is ANPR?
ANPR is principally designed to be an alert system. ANPR is software which, when fitted to a camera system, can scan and read over three thousand number plates per hour.
Digital images are captured through the ANPR cameras located either in a mobile unit or a fixed site system. The digital image is then converted into data, which is then processed through the ANPR system. The system is able to cross reference the data against a variety of databases including the Police National Computer (PNC), DVLA and highlights vehicles of interest to police forces.
If the information supplied via the ANPR system alerts officers to an offence or relevant intelligence on a vehicle, the vehicle may be stopped to allow further investigation.
ANPR cameras are NOT safety cameras - i.e. they are not in place to catch speeding motorists. Quite simply ANPR aims to deny criminals the use of the roads, not to target the majority of law-abiding road users.