Police traffic cars and their onboard computers / ANPR
Police traffic cars and their onboard computers / ANPR
Author
Discussion

Howard-

Original Poster:

4,964 posts

232 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
Hi all,

I just got followed most of the way home by a patrol car and it made me idly curious: do their onboard ANPR computers automatically show information on every car they follow? What information shows up? Do the officers 'think' about every car they follow? Do they give the information a second thought, e.g. they probably would have seen me turn off towards the car's registered address and think 'he's going home from work'?

Totally useless questions I know but ho hum, every day's a school day!

Ta!

cbmotorsport

3,065 posts

148 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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I always thought that it only shows up info if it finds a discrepancy...but I don't know for sure.

HantsRat

2,409 posts

138 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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It will flash an alert if something is recorded against that VRM such as no insurance, no tax.

We can also push a button to get instant PNC results of any vehicle the camera has picked up whether it has pinged an alert or not. If the camera hasn't picked up the VRM we can type it in and still PNC the vehicle.


Poshbury

771 posts

149 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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One thing to remember if you are being followed by a Police car. It might just coincidentally be going the same way as you are.

XCP

17,717 posts

258 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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More often than not!

alpha channel

1,400 posts

192 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
...unless they do a 180 when you pull out of your street and proceed to follow you.

Bristol spark

4,509 posts

213 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
Poshbury said:
One thing to remember if you are being followed by a Police car. It might just coincidentally be going the same way as you are.
Depends, last year my car had ran out of MOT and a police car started following me, so i pulled into a Tesco car park expecting to get blue lighted.

I didn't so i started lapping the car park, after lap 3 they obviously got bored and disappeared.


So if you ever get tailed, start lapping a Tesco car park and see if they get bored smile



ging84

9,548 posts

176 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
alpha channel said:
...unless they do a 180 when you pull out of your street and proceed to follow you.
Unless you, your car or your driving manner makes you stand out as law breaker, still a fair chance they are still turning around for a reason completely unrelated to you.

Howard-

Original Poster:

4,964 posts

232 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
Poshbury said:
One thing to remember if you are being followed by a Police car. It might just coincidentally be going the same way as you are.
I know full well it was just a coincidence. I never did believe they were "locked onto me". It just got me curious about how it all works from their POV, that's all smile.

FurryExocet

3,011 posts

211 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
Bristol spark said:
Depends, last year my car had ran out of MOT and a police car started following me, so i pulled into a Tesco car park expecting to get blue lighted.

I didn't so i started lapping the car park, after lap 3 they obviously got bored and disappeared.


So if you ever get tailed, start lapping a Tesco car park and see if they get bored smile
ANPR doesn't show up MOT.

Ham Sandwich

7 posts

120 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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It does show MOT status. smile

konark

1,239 posts

149 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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I got stopped because their computer said my MOT had expired just 5 days before, only when I was in the back of their car did they do a more thorough check and found it had passed the MOT a day later.

Bigends

6,178 posts

158 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
quotequote all
Ham Sandwich said:
It does show MOT status. smile
Dont they need to carry a PNC check out to check the MOT dates on the vehicle screen

Boosted LS1

21,200 posts

290 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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It doesn't spot fake plates either because they're not on the system. Who'd have thunk it.

alpha channel

1,400 posts

192 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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ging84 said:
Unless you, your car or your driving manner makes you stand out as law breaker, still a fair chance they are still turning around for a reason completely unrelated to you.
Nah, I suspect it must have had something to do with a nasty little piece of work that lived at the bottom of the street and they thought that I might have come from there, as they followed me for the better part of six miles before turning off.

I've certainly got nothing against the local plod though, not too long before that I had my car jacked up with the back box off and had left it as such overnight as it was getting dark by the time we'd unhooked it. Around 8-ish we had a knock on the door from a passing officer asking if we were aware of the car having been jacked up. I can't say I've had a bad experience of Co. Durham boys and gals in blue yet, they even managed to recover my Dad's stolen Capri many, many years ago before it became trendy to torch/strip stolen motor's.

FurryExocet

3,011 posts

211 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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Ham Sandwich said:
It does show MOT status. smile
Our system doesn't alarm for no MOT

Elroy Blue

8,841 posts

222 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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Neither does ours. It's PNC that shows the MOT status.

Derek Smith

49,880 posts

278 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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I was radio operator in an unmarked car. We were following another one but allowed other cars to come between us to allay suspicion.

We stopped at traffic lights and the driver of the car immediately in front of us got out, came back to our car, and said: 'I've already told my brief about you. I'm getting fed up with it all.' Or something like that but with a few forceful adjectives thrown in. I did a PNC check on the car, then via radio to a computer operator. It came back with a marker to report sightings but not to stop.

I phoned the chap who'd put the marker on it, Cally Road RCS, and he was overjoyed, and told us to document the follow we were doing as we were bound to get aggro. He refused to say what the job was about.

I was only on the car for a few days so I don't know if there was any comeback.


pim

2,346 posts

154 months

Wednesday 5th July 2017
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About a month ago about seven pm.Quet road 30mph.

Noticed in my rear view mirror blue flashing lights.Cop car overtook me at speed.me thinking he or she on a emergency call.He moved over into my lane ahead and put his red emergency lights on.

I waited a car length behind him for a talk to me about the situation.I waited five minutes nothing,then a hand outside his side window waving me on.

What was this all about?

Ham Sandwich

7 posts

120 months

Thursday 6th July 2017
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Bigend - I know, but it will flash as a warning on some systems if it is out of date in the same way a no insurance would ping.

FurryExocet - ours ping, I thought most systems (if not all?) were the same?