2008-07-01 08:43:27 - Personallyyours.co.uk who is registered with the DVLA has been in the personalised number plate industry for twenty years. They provide private number plates, rare number plates, attend number plate auctions and buy cherished number plates.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition used to catch drug runners

The police are resorting to hi tech equipment to catch drug runners through their number plates, police forces are more than ever relying on the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to read vehicles number plates which can be traced in seconds.

The concern of the police is that cars are being used

to move consignments of drugs across county borders, but with ANPR the police are able to get a virtual instant response from the system and are then able to take immediate action to prevent their cargo from getting to its destination.

Police spokesman, Peter Butcher said: "The system is seen as a day to continuation of an initiative carried out in the Ledbury area in May, where ANPR enabled the arrest of six people on the Herefordshire/Gloucestershire border, as well as the seizure of quantities of controlled drugs."

The ANPR is being fitted to more and more police cars, where it is able to check the number plates of all the vehicles travelling within its scanning range and check the details against a hundred different databases. This means even if the number plate is on a fully legal car, the owner may be known to the police or even wanted.

Superintendent Kevin Purcell of Herefordshire Division said: "By investing in the technology, we are extending our capability to monitor vehicles on the county's round around the clock.

"This should send a strong message to the criminal fraternity, and especially those who seek to enter the county from elsewhere to commit crime.

"They run the serious risk of being stopped and arrested when they use the roads of Herefordshire."

Source [Ledbury Reporter]



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