Paul Jolly: Technology for safety

In November 2005, British police constable Sharon Beshenivsky was shot and killed during a robbery in Bradford. The CCTV network was linked to an ANPR system and was able to identify the getaway car and track its movements, leading to the arrest of six suspects. The final episode of this tragic story resulted in Piran Khan from Pakistan being sentenced to 40 years imprisonment last month for her murder. Khan was the architect of the operation and meticulously planned the robbery that was to be carried out using firearms.

Had it not been for the ANPR cameras which tracked the getaway cars, and the subsequent arrest of the armed robbers, this ring leader may not have been identified and brought back to the UK to face justice. 

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is a technology for automatically reading vehicle number plates. It is used by law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality including tackling organised crime groups and terrorists.
 
ANPR is European-wide and so a terrorist suspect can be tracked over many countries with town centre visual images able to confirm the identity of the front occupants.
 
Since March 2006, motorways, main roads, town centres, London's congestion charge zone, ports and petrol station forecourts have been covered by CCTV camera networks using automatic number plate recognition. Existing traffic cameras in towns and cities are being converted to read number plates automatically as part of the new national surveillance network.

Many police patrol vehicles now have these cameras quietly ‘reading’ every plate they pass and alerting the officer as required.

 The latest fixed yellow cameras are multi-purpose and not only capture speeding motorists from either direction but also detect whether seat belts are being worn, and mobile phones are being used and identify road tax or MOT evasion. These measures have to be a good thing for all concerned.
 
This technology is more about serious crime prevention than clobbering the poor old motorist. But it makes sense to know why these cameras are there and what they do to make all our lives safer.