dangermouse
20-07-2009, 08:58 PM
Number's up for car-tax dodgers with new gadget
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/numbers-up-for-cartax-dodgers-with-new-gadget-1830410.html?r=RSS
A garda car with the latest Automatic Number Plate Recognition system
Articles
http://www.independent.ie/multimedia/archive/00368/garda_indo_368603t.jpg
By Paul Melia
Monday July 20 2009
JUST moments into a drive through Dublin's Phoenix Park and the computer spots potential law breakers.
"Attention, tax" a metallic voice says. "Attention, insurance" it barks just a second later, flashing the number plates of offending vehicles on to a screen placed on the dashboard of an unmarked squad car.
An Garda Siochana's latest gadget to crack down on motoring offences is busy, spotting up to a dozen cars which appear not to have tax and insurance and are breaking the law.
The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system, which is in 104 marked and unmarked squad cars across the country, is the latest and "most useful" tool in the force's crackdown on motoring offences.
It allows officers to identify vehicles without tax or insurance by reading their number plates and checking them against a database of compliant vehicles. And the system, rolled out since last October, will also alert officers to "suspect" vehicles -- either stolen or suspected of being involved in criminal activities.
It also means that the issue of false insurance documentation or tax and insurance discs will become a thing of the past. If the ANPR system doesn't have a record of tax or insurance, the vehicle doesn't have it.
Two cameras are mounted on a car, one attached to the front windscreen and the second to the back.
Gardai aim it at the road and the cameras scan number plates of vehicles coming in the opposite direction and check to see if they are taxed, insured or on a watchlist of suspicious vehicles against a database which is updated daily.
It can also be used as a speed camera.
"Within a split second it will alert the driver," a garda expert says. "This could scan every car in the car park of Dublin Airport in just 15 minutes."
Every morning the system operator downloads the latest list of vehicles with tax and insurance, and details of suspicious and stolen vehicles, on to a memory stick which is inserted into the system. The system holds up to 20 days of material, and will eventually be updated throughout the day. At the end of the shift, the information is fed into a central computer in HQ.
The system seen by the Irish Independent had read 16,817 plates in just a few days.
Gardai say it has already alerted them to major crimes.
In Limerick, a car was stopped on suspicion of not being taxed. Gardai became suspicious of the identity of the driver, and it emerged he was wanted on an EU arrest warrant for murder.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/numbers-up-for-cartax-dodgers-with-new-gadget-1830410.html?r=RSS
A garda car with the latest Automatic Number Plate Recognition system
Articles
http://www.independent.ie/multimedia/archive/00368/garda_indo_368603t.jpg
By Paul Melia
Monday July 20 2009
JUST moments into a drive through Dublin's Phoenix Park and the computer spots potential law breakers.
"Attention, tax" a metallic voice says. "Attention, insurance" it barks just a second later, flashing the number plates of offending vehicles on to a screen placed on the dashboard of an unmarked squad car.
An Garda Siochana's latest gadget to crack down on motoring offences is busy, spotting up to a dozen cars which appear not to have tax and insurance and are breaking the law.
The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system, which is in 104 marked and unmarked squad cars across the country, is the latest and "most useful" tool in the force's crackdown on motoring offences.
It allows officers to identify vehicles without tax or insurance by reading their number plates and checking them against a database of compliant vehicles. And the system, rolled out since last October, will also alert officers to "suspect" vehicles -- either stolen or suspected of being involved in criminal activities.
It also means that the issue of false insurance documentation or tax and insurance discs will become a thing of the past. If the ANPR system doesn't have a record of tax or insurance, the vehicle doesn't have it.
Two cameras are mounted on a car, one attached to the front windscreen and the second to the back.
Gardai aim it at the road and the cameras scan number plates of vehicles coming in the opposite direction and check to see if they are taxed, insured or on a watchlist of suspicious vehicles against a database which is updated daily.
It can also be used as a speed camera.
"Within a split second it will alert the driver," a garda expert says. "This could scan every car in the car park of Dublin Airport in just 15 minutes."
Every morning the system operator downloads the latest list of vehicles with tax and insurance, and details of suspicious and stolen vehicles, on to a memory stick which is inserted into the system. The system holds up to 20 days of material, and will eventually be updated throughout the day. At the end of the shift, the information is fed into a central computer in HQ.
The system seen by the Irish Independent had read 16,817 plates in just a few days.
Gardai say it has already alerted them to major crimes.
In Limerick, a car was stopped on suspicion of not being taxed. Gardai became suspicious of the identity of the driver, and it emerged he was wanted on an EU arrest warrant for murder.