ANPR results in Thames Valley

[puggit]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4553469.stm

bbc said:

Number plate scanners hit crime A hi-tech system that scans car number plates and compares them to those of wanted criminals has helped a police force make 1,030 arrests in a year. Figures released by Thames Valley Police show that 85 stolen vehicles were recovered thanks to the automatic number plate recognition system. The technology also helped police find drugs and stolen goods worth £542,000 between April 2004 and March this year. Force chiefs said they are now to expand the system's use. The Home Office gave the force £300,000 in April to increase the number of scanning cameras in use across the area. More town centre CCTV systems are to be upgraded to incorporate the scanner capability. Insp Gary Grant said: "The force area has 196 miles of motorway running through it, more than any other police force area, and also has many major arterial routes allowing criminals to travel freely and rapidly in and out of the region. "This technology is giving us the tools we need to tackle these criminals, allowing us to identify known prolific offenders. "The real beauty of (the technology) is that it identifies only vehicles that are suspected of being involved in criminality and is therefore an efficient means of targeting offenders."

Looks like it's working to me...

But I still believe Nu Labia plan to use this for more Orwellian purposes...

[MilnerR]

Combine ANPR with S172 and you have a very powerful tool for keeping tabs on people. Then again civil liberties aren't taken away, they are slowly eroded.....

[puggit]

spindrift said:

Get a bike - everyone!

I already have one, but my car is far more fun - and gets me places quicker

[Munter]

Are the "periscopes" i'm seeing on the back of the police omega estates ANPR? They appear to look at the car behind the plod....

Anyway if it only picks up stolencars and untaxed/uninsured drivers then i'm for it. If it starts tracking where I go and who with then i'm probably a bit worried, but being british we'd collect all the data but fail to put it together.

[tonyhetherington]

I see this as a good thing?

I drive past...it sees my plate...I drive on. The scum who drive uninsured or un taxed, or are on the run, or are wanted in connection with something get tracked.

Is this not a good thing? I, personally, am for it

[supraman2954]

ANPR is working..... for whom?


ANPR FAILING IN GUILDFORD

CLONING - NOW A HUGE PROBLEM??





On a completely unrelated note, I recently found a UK supplier of relatively cheap large IR filters

[^Slider^]

Works quite well i thought. Having the anpr facility on the town cctv has helped alot as they are usually on the main routes in and out of town.

I cant see them being used to track drivers if im honest. Maybe used by councils or other government depts but not the police cameras or cctv.

Saves alot of time when on patrol as getting a good hit before would have required the driver of the subject vehicle getting noticed before a pnc is carried out. With anpr it just scans, checks and either alerts or disregards.

Positive way forward i think.

Gareth

[IanReid]

Munter said:

Anyway if it only picks up stolencars and untaxed/uninsured drivers then i'm for it. If it starts tracking where I go and who with then i'm probably a bit worried, but being british we'd collect all the data but fail to put it together.

Chap sitting three feet from me was picked up by ANPR when he drove past a patrol car. He was stopped, and when he proved who he was, was let go on his way. Reason he was flagged? Apparently someone who lived at his current address before him was an offender of some sort. This was Thames Valley.

Sounds a bit like credit databases which are based on addresses. The moral is: it's only as good as the database.

[^Slider^]

More like vehicle was used in crime prior and the driver of said vehicle was possibly wanted.

The database comes from everywhere.
DVLA
Customs
Insurance
Force intell (which is where the link was made from a stop check)

But the data is only as good as the data that is input from all agencies.

Gareth

[MilnerR]

Depends how the system is used. Catching criminals is one thing but the oportunity for abuse is obvious. The current government has spent its time terrifying us about threats that don't exist and doing its very best to invade the private lives of citizens through the use of the media, technology and the security services.
ANPR if used responibly is a great system.....

[WildCat]

^Slider^ said:

More like vehicle was used in crime prior and the driver of said vehicle was possibly wanted. The database comes from everywhere. DVLA Customs Insurance Force intell (which is where the link was made from a stop check) But the data is only as good as the data that is input from all agencies. Gareth

Exactly Liebchen - und they are making hash of it too. Too easy to get a throwaway und never register it...

[^Slider^]

Yep it is too easy. But it is catching people and its a relatively new technology to be used in policeing. Hopefully the system will develop and improve.

We can only use what we have, criminals will always change tact and we have to try to use new tools to catch them. This is one tool that works at the moment. Sure it will in time be of little or no use as the criminal fraternity change their tactics.

But its working for now. Like a game of cat and mouse. one will always try to stay ahead, one will always try to cathc up.

[TypeR]

IanReid said:

Munter said: Anyway if it only picks up stolencars and untaxed/uninsured drivers then i'm for it. If it starts tracking where I go and who with then i'm probably a bit worried, but being british we'd collect all the data but fail to put it together. Chap sitting three feet from me was picked up by ANPR when he drove past a patrol car. He was stopped, and when he proved who he was, was let go on his way. Reason he was flagged? Apparently someone who lived at his current address before him was an offender of some sort. This was Thames Valley. Sounds a bit like credit databases which are based on addresses. The moral is: it's only as good as the database.

That sounds familiar. The guy we bought our house from is a well known scrote who keeps giving the BiB our address when he gets pulled.
We've been visited at least 4 times by Thames Valley Police looking for this guy, who ironically lives less than 200 yds down the road.
The female detective was VERY fit, and I'd have asked her in for a cuppa, but the wife wouln't have been best pleased though.

[the pirate]

Dont be taken in by ANPR.

The cops already have the database in their cars, they just have to type in the numbers of dodgy looking cars.

ANPR costs money, big money and thay wouldnt be spending it if there wasnt a return.

Work it out, two ANPRs 10 miles apart, a car registers both in under 10 minutes in a 50 limit, hey presto a crime.

All this cripe about it catching crims is just a smoke screen so we dont put up a fight. After fixed units have been installed all over the country, they will start being used as they were intended.

[supraman2954]

the pirate said:

ANPR costs money, big money and thay wouldnt be spending it if there wasnt a return.

How much does an ANPR camera cost? How does that compare to a SPECS?

[cptsideways]

supraman2954 said:

the pirate said: ANPR costs money, big money and thay wouldnt be spending it if there wasnt a return. How much does an ANPR camera cost? How does that compare to a SPECS?

They are one and the same system, PIPS Technology supply both. It only takes a bit of software to do whatever you want.

[supraman2954]

cptsideways said:

supraman2954 said: How much does an ANPR camera cost? How does that compare to a SPECS? They are one and the same system, PIPS Technology supply both. It only takes a bit of software to do whatever you want.

Thanks again Declan, I suspected as much. I wondered who made these, now I know.

I surfed their website and found a graph of spectral response of PIPS cameras, meaning these things have daylight rejection filters.















Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking?

[dirkgently]

I don’t know why there is all the fuss about cameras. If you don’t commit a crime you have nothing to worry about


[url]www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/news/s/158/158027_smoker_fuming_over_litter_fine.html[/url]


I.D cards anyone?

[nel]

the pirate said:

Work it out, two ANPRs 10 miles apart, a car registers both in under 10 minutes in a 50 limit, hey presto a crime.

Given that plate cloning is a known phenomenom, I don't think this would wash legally unless they had photographs specifically and unambiguously showing the driver at each ANPR site. Damn well hope not anyway, coz otherwise it'd be a mockery of the justice system!