ANPR Cameras part of the policing solution - but not a total solution

Are ANPR Cameras only effective as the accuracy of the data they capture?

Many years ago, those of us in the Police service used to deal with the unlicensed vehicles on the highway by means of the old CLE2/6 form, which was sent to the DVLA. This was effective in most cases, but was of little use if you did not have the vehicle owner to hand or the car was shown as previous keeper only on the DVLA records.

Not all of the vehicles dealt with were parked up, some were seen as being used with out of date or not displaying vehicle excise licences. Indeed some owners would park up off the highway to avoid detection and prosecution in my experience. 

Mobile combined ANPR and Speed cameras are now common

When I was on a training course at Police HQ, the Instructors said quite rightly that a vehicle with no excise disc probably hid other situations, such as no MOT or no Insurance. And indeed, perhaps the vehicle being used by a disqualified driver.

So, ANPR was seen as a sort of magic bullet, but not quite. The days when you patrolled on foot and observed excise offences are now gone thanks to the removal of the requirement to show a valid Vehicle Excise disc in the car windscreen.

I think this is a backward step, there is no visual means now for anyone to see whether a vehicle is legal on the road, without performing a vehicle check or having an ANPR camera. Out of a hundred cars driving by an officer, any or all of these could be on the road illegally now, unless one or more is stopped and checked manually, how would you know? Unless you were standing by a portable ANPR camera that would tell you! Perhaps the regime now is that with reduced Beat Officers, detection is better off done by camera.

Cloning cars and number plates is worthwhile still

Where ANPR falls down is in two ways, firstly, it reads the number plate only. Therefore, a car displaying a number plate (index plate for those in the trade) may be displaying one from a car known to be always kept 'on the road' i.e. legal, with MOT, insurance and duty paid.

Indeed cloning it, is a worthwhile exercise for the criminal, because unless you can stop the driver and check out the car and VIN if it is a direct clone of a known car, same model, colour, make, then the offences remain undetected.

A Police patrol car can be driving right behind the clone and their ANPR may not bleep because the car index is shown to be of a vehicle that is completely 'legal.' Unless they have a reason to stop or suspect it, then the car continues on, offences undetected. Not by any fault of the Officers, but because 'officially' the car is 'legal.'

So the ANPR plate software is unlikely to detect the actual Car 'A' being driven in Sussex but 10 minutes later cloned Car 'A' 's index plates being captured on camera in Glasgow. Which Car 'A' is the real one?

Gantry mounted cameras may record a car with a marker that is known to be owned by a disqualified driver, or has no MOT or Insurance or Vehicle Excise duty in force. But, that is all. Indeed, a car with DVLA details as previous keeper only vehicle, driven by a gantry may flag up the lack of legality, but if there are no Police 'tyres on the road' to enforce it, that person can get away with it until caught, if ever caught. if the previous keeper has no details of whom the car was sold too.

ANPR may be seen as a form of Policing on the cheap, but it is effective in that it does detect crime, but without integration into a system with Officers on the road, it is a piecemeal exercise and people are very unlikely to be caught, especially if they know where static cameras are located and evade them to avoid detection.

As an intelligence gathering tool it has value, for enforcement some too, but in the case of your disqualified driver, you need photographic evidence to prove the offence and to stop them on the road, driving. The disqualified do drive and in the old days Police would sit up and wait for them to and have them for the offence.

Whilst ANPR does solve some crimes, it cannot enforce others. With 34 million plus road vehicles on the UK road network, how many ANPR alerts are generated and how many can be effectively dealt with by an overburdened DVLA and Police service?

And that is without the added problem of foreign cars, many of which may be being driven in the UK without current tax, insurance or test certificates in force in the home country.