ALPR AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION.Software system revolutionizes policing Computer system spots LICENSE PLATES OF INTEREST as officers drive DRIVERS BEWARE. CONDUCT YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY. First introduced as a prototype in 2006 ALPR was accepted into the police system in 2007. More police cars in 2008 will be equipped with the camera system software that captures license plates of vehicles. If you are associated with a drivers license suspension, no insurance or a stolen vehicle, among its current Law enforcment uses (but there are more uses to track persons of interest) through this system, BEWARE. Simply passing a police car can lead to your arrest as the system can capture 3000 plates readings an hour and if your plate is in the the data base, you couold be in trouble or the subject of survelliance. This is the next great way revolutionizing how policing in done in North America and beyond as the technology spreads. Police download license plates from reports of violations from ICBC each morning along with their own plates of interest to arrest, follow or kept under surveillance by undercover cars that will take up the pursuit of a suspicious or database vehicle license plate in unmarked cars. Computer system spots stolen licence plates as officers drive David Carrigg, The Province Published: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 As Sgt. Gord Elias drives in an unmarked family van along Scott Road in Surrey, a voice calls a warning from his dash. "Alert, possible unlicensed driver." Elias looks to the 20-centimetre-square screen mounted on the dash and notes the freeze-frame capture of a newer-model four-door sedan. The vehicle's licence plate is displayed alongside. Sgt. Gord Elias of the anti-auto-theft crime team monitors screen for stolen licence-plate alerts.View Larger Image View Larger Image Sgt. Gord Elias of the anti-auto-theft crime team monitors screen for stolen licence-plate alerts. Les Bazso, The Province Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly Font: * * * * * * * * AddThis Social Bookmark Button The Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) system is working. "This will revolutionize the way we police in North America," says Elias, of the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team, or IMPACT. "It's like having dozens of extra police on the road." Elias drives on. His business is auto theft, not unlicensed drivers. "It's very unpredictable. We may go out on a day and not get one, then the next day we'll get several hits," he said. Each morning, IMPACT downloads licence-plate numbers from the RCMP's Ottawa-based Canadian Police Information Centre related to stolen vehicles or people on outstanding warrants or wanted for crimes. Suspect licence-plate numbers from the Motor Vehicle Branch are also downloaded. Officers then assess the latest crime maps to find out where vehicles are being stolen and where they are being dumped. Those maps are posted at the IMPACT office in Surrey each Monday morning and include municipalities in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley as well as communities throughout B.C. "In the hands of a trained auto-theft police officer, ALPR is very effective. They know where to go and develop a sense for what they are looking for," Elias said. Inside the IMPACT parkade, Elias points out four small cameras mounted on the IMPACT van, explaining that the next wave of ALPR comes with pinhole cameras that will not have to be concealed. Police in B.C. began using ALPR in the fall of 2006 as a pilot project and discovered a police officer's dream -- each unit can read 600 plates an hour. The project found that nine per cent of the hits involved stolen vehicles, seven per cent involved a prohibited driver, 25 per cent were associated with an unlicensed or uninsured vehicle and 59 per cent with an unlicensed driver, said Elias. ALPR was added permanently as a police tool in B.C. last fall. "They will be used in security for the [2010] Olympic Games," said Elias. The number of ALPR units currently on the road is a closely guarded secret. The units are found on some IMPACT undercover vehicles and on some marked vehicles belonging to the Integrated Road Safety Unit. When an IMPACT/ALPR vehicle gets a stolen-auto hit, the driver contacts an IMPACT undercover vehicle that follows the suspect vehicle until enough evidence is gathered to make an arrest. "We need to be able to show that the driver knows the vehicle is stolen. That it has something like a smashed ignition. Of course with bait cars, they all plead guilty," Elias said.