ANPR on Mile End Road (London) .. disappointing
Discussion
Chaps,
I got off the tube at Bow Road yesterday, to see a transit-type van parked on the central reservation with the rear doors closed, but two cameras pointing out of two small flaps above the rear doors. A BiB was hanging out of the drivers window, so I walked across and asked him (very politely) "Sorry to bother you, but is this a Speed Camera or ANPR unit?" The slightly curt reply was "ANPR". I thanked him warmly, as I have long been concerned about illegal/unlicensed/uninsured cars on the Mile End Road, and believed that ANPR allowed instant identification of vehicles that had no insurance, MOT, TAX or vehicles that were wanted for other reasons.
I was in no rush, so wandered down the road to see if I could see BiB catching some uninsured scrotes. I expected to see two or three BiB on bikes, apprehending vehicles by the hundred. But this was not so. About 500 yards further down was a crowd (15+) of BiB in a car park just off the main road, swarming around a few parked cars. The centre of attention seemed to be a small red clio, which they were looking in the boot of, and a very nasty, well chavved-up black focus. The red clio was allowed to go fairly quickly, the driver of the focus (young black guy) was looking very contrite and talking with 4 coppers.
However, I watched for 20+ minutes, and nothing changed. Several hundred cars would have gone past the ANPR van in this time, but I saw none actually being stopped. Given that somewhere between 5% and 10% of cars nationwide are uninsured, and this rises to over 30% in London, I would have expected a large number of people to have been stopped - and yet they were only talking to this one guy.
Do I have a wrong understanding of the capabilities of ANPR (as in, it can't spot uninsured drivers), or is it more likely that the chaps running the system were doing something else? (I ask this while realising that it is hard to second-guess the actions of people when you weren't there.)
(The other thing I noticed was that there are two Gatso's on the Mile End Road, between Mile End and Bow Road, that I hadn't seen before. No lines on the road and very clean shiny Gatsos - I am guessing that they are a fairly recent installation.)
Oli.
I got off the tube at Bow Road yesterday, to see a transit-type van parked on the central reservation with the rear doors closed, but two cameras pointing out of two small flaps above the rear doors. A BiB was hanging out of the drivers window, so I walked across and asked him (very politely) "Sorry to bother you, but is this a Speed Camera or ANPR unit?" The slightly curt reply was "ANPR". I thanked him warmly, as I have long been concerned about illegal/unlicensed/uninsured cars on the Mile End Road, and believed that ANPR allowed instant identification of vehicles that had no insurance, MOT, TAX or vehicles that were wanted for other reasons.
I was in no rush, so wandered down the road to see if I could see BiB catching some uninsured scrotes. I expected to see two or three BiB on bikes, apprehending vehicles by the hundred. But this was not so. About 500 yards further down was a crowd (15+) of BiB in a car park just off the main road, swarming around a few parked cars. The centre of attention seemed to be a small red clio, which they were looking in the boot of, and a very nasty, well chavved-up black focus. The red clio was allowed to go fairly quickly, the driver of the focus (young black guy) was looking very contrite and talking with 4 coppers.
However, I watched for 20+ minutes, and nothing changed. Several hundred cars would have gone past the ANPR van in this time, but I saw none actually being stopped. Given that somewhere between 5% and 10% of cars nationwide are uninsured, and this rises to over 30% in London, I would have expected a large number of people to have been stopped - and yet they were only talking to this one guy.
Do I have a wrong understanding of the capabilities of ANPR (as in, it can't spot uninsured drivers), or is it more likely that the chaps running the system were doing something else? (I ask this while realising that it is hard to second-guess the actions of people when you weren't there.)
(The other thing I noticed was that there are two Gatso's on the Mile End Road, between Mile End and Bow Road, that I hadn't seen before. No lines on the road and very clean shiny Gatsos - I am guessing that they are a fairly recent installation.)
Oli.
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