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Automated number plate recognition in detail: We go on patrol with Queensland police

Driving dodgy in the digital age? You lot're defenseless already.

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Equally in most Australian states, Queensland Law are now actively operating the next-generation of law-breaking fighting technology: Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).

In Queensland alone, the tech has been used to accurately scan number plates over 23 million times in the last 15 months. Fitted to police vehicles across the state, ANPR scanners accept the ability to fight crime in ways previously the domain of science fiction.

Speaking to CarAdvice on the implementation of the system, Jeffrey Douglas, Acting Inspector and Operations Managing director of the QLD Police route policing task force, says the system has been in several stages of development since 2012, when QLD police caused four vehicles fitted with iv different systems for a trial.

Since the start of last year, when a single supplier of the system was chosen, 61 police vehicles have now been fitted with the latest in ANPR technology, with a database of i.8 million 'hotlist' number plates.

The list includes licence plates that have been cancelled, unregistered, reported as stolen, or whose owners are wanted in connexion with a crime. At that place are also alerts for vehicles whose registered possessor has a history of drink- or drug-driving, amongst other things.

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Above: although we cannot display scanned number plates for this article, our time with a QLD Police ANPR unit showed the organization's scanning and interpretation to be immensely accurate.

And then, how does the organization work?

From the outside, vehicles fitted with ANPR are identifiable past the 2 large camera units fitted on either side of the police car, with a tablet-mode screen within and a processing organization located in the back of the vehicle.

The two cameras run a consistent video feed, and take photos of any characters in real time. The system tin can in theory process xvi number plates per second across multiple lanes, which explains how the ANPR-enabled vehicles take managed to scan a staggering 23 1000000 plates in just over a year.

The are two divide camera systems on either side, ane which takes normal color photos and another which takes infrared images, able to find number plates in pitch black. Making the process of detection no more hard at dark than during the solar day.

With a database that large, the ANPR vehicles are updated over WiFi each time they enter a uniform police force station. The vehicles automatically connect to the WiFi and download the latest database of hotlist plates, and laissez passer dorsum information well-nigh the number plates scanned and their related data back to the organization.

This means, rather than relying on a cellular data connection, the organization does all of its identification through on-board databases.

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Information being passed dorsum includes all vehicles scanned (regardless of their status on the wanted listing), which has left some in the public labelling the ANPR system every bit being a little too 'large blood brother' and intrusive, but Douglas says the recorded data is very much vehicle-focused and non about the individual.

"I sympathise that in that location has been some sensitivity in relation to 'big brother' or 'you're watching and looking at me', [merely] we don't have personal particulars" Douglas told CarAdvice.

"All nosotros are recording is registration plate and time, date and place, so for an investigation nosotros would still need to investigate who the driver was, so there is a big step betwixt collecting data and identifying somebody. And then, personal data? We don't accept that."

Douglas argues that having the number plates of echo offenders or doubtable criminals on tape is beneficial to the community.

"Past being able to include number plates of people who are either suspected of being involved or certainly involved with illegal activity, whether that exist driving offences or otherwise... nosotros might [for example] get some crime stopper data nearly somebody who is a habitual drink driver."

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Needless to say, number plate recognition systems already be with toll roads and even some shopping centres – which constabulary could access as part of an active investigation - and so the data is already existence collected via other means.

Although no definite timeline has been established for how long the data tin can be kept, CarAdvice believes draft legislation volition permit for the storing of such data for upwardly to five years.

Douglas says there are three unlike ways for the arrangement's deployment. Firstly, vehicles can be parked on the side of the road every bit part of regular policing duty, whereby the system will throw upwardly a warning if a wanted vehicle drives by (in either direction). Generally, this is and then reported to a law unit further up the road who will perform the pull-over performance.

Secondly, they tin can be used while the police force car is actively performing policing duty, and, thirdly, the organisation is never switched off, then if a police auto is simply being driven for another purpose and it happens to detect a wanted vehicle, it volition throw up the appropriate alarms.

During a cursory demonstration that lasted no more than 15 minutes on a road with a large police station across the road, the ANPR vehicles that CarAdvice experienced managed to detect multiple wanted vehicles, i which was reported as stolen and another whose owner had been marked for previous offences related to operating a vehicle under the influence.

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The second warning does seems equally though its more than about the person than the car, still the way the database works is simply a large collection of number plates that accept been collected - and so, while a vehicle may come up with a warning for being stolen or registered to a repeat DUI offender, information technology doesn't mean the person operating the vehicle is under suspicion, more so that a check volition exist carried out equally standard procedure.

Douglas gave a common example of when a person has lost their licence and are the registered owner of a vehicle, this would and then throw an warning regardless of who is driving the vehicle, in this case ordinarily the partner or the kids. This would be resolved with a elementary matter of a basic licence bank check.

Higher priority is given to stolen vehicles than, say, a potential echo offender or suspected unlicensed driver.

Perhaps almost importantly, the system has been used in much more serious police operations for when a child has been reported equally missing (amber alert), whereby ANPR vehicles are rapidly deployed to a certain surface area and are far more effective at spotting a vehicle than homo eyes, especially at night.

No official figures exist for the number of drivers or owners that have been charged as a issue of ANPR vehicles in performance, due to the court proceedings that commonly follow, however we doubtable given the loftier scanning rate, and going by our cursory sit-in that netted multiple vehicles, the numbers would be rather high.

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In that location are some limitations to the system, nonetheless - most prominent of which is that it doesn't accept an active listing of wanted number plates from other states, so an unregistered NSW vehicle would go gratuitous driving past.

Also, it'southward probable that its database will get updated just in one case per mean solar day, and so information technology may be out of date if a vehicle has been reported for a crime during the 24-hour interval - though at that place is the ability to add in a number plate manually for more serious crimes such every bit abductions and serious robberies.

This would as well apply to vehicles that accept recently expired registration, but have been paid for on the due date (it would have QLD ship 24-48 hours to pass that information along).

No dubiousness the implications of ANPR and its uses are far wider-reaching than simply nabbing unregistered vehicles and drivers. The data collected can be used to fight crime years in the future, with an authentic record of vehicle movements that could be invaluable.

Its implications on privacy matters remain a matter of public opinion, yet its effectiveness and subsequent expansion of the performance has never been in doubt.

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