The APNR vans in my area, W London, LHR, A3, M25 J9 /J10 are now displaying a sign on the verge explaining what the vans are doing. I saw another example yesterday but did not stop to read it properly.
I think this PR approach will ease the concern of many passing such vans as most motorist, I suspect, think they are speed cameras.
|
Seems like an excellent idea.
Around here they don't use the signs and to the passing motorist it can be quite alarming to see three police bikes and two cars parked up in the layby with their engines running, with two further bikes and a car a mile down the road.
A sign explaining their actions just after the last turn off before their usual layby on their favourite stretch of dual carriageway would do wonders. Wouldn't be surprised if a few drives gave a round of applause!
|
|
Saw a live hit today. A skip lorry four cars ahead passed through an ANPR van. The driver was quickly "brought down" by a Police Motorcyclist - excellent.
|
|
O.K. I give in. What is an ANPR van, and how big are they if you can pass through them ?
|
Automatic Number Plate Recognition. Checks about 5 Police Databases including PNC (insurance details and VEL included) strategically placed Police cars spring on anything (including badly "written" plates) that flag up. Net result is that they actuall catch real criminals tax dodgers and insurance offenders.
Tax Dodgers get a fixed penalty £65.00, insurance dodgers get a £200.00 fixed penalty. Substance Misuse merchants get nicked as do thieves and murderers. They do not measure speed. Ususally a Hi Roof Trannie either plain or in more enlightened areas high vis markings. Usually have a spare wheel mounted on the back door with an adjacent generator on the verge. Increasingly patrol cars, marked and unmarked have rearward facing ANPR cameras. They are usually parked up where known rouges tend to funnel through. As Mr Brunstrom said on Radio 4 "like catching fish" Highly unpopular with Solicitors as the Rozzers tend to deploy in the late afternoon when a self respecting brief is in the local Wine Bar. My practice now has an understanding with the local Police. They tip us the wink, so we can wheel out and dust down desk-bound briefs down to custody at short notice so we can resource and they get a quicker service.This is the new Hunt.
|
What a fantastic idea.
Not keen on the Tax Dodgers' penalty though, because surely that means they can get caught up to twice a year and still end up paying substantially less than I do?
|
|
Tax dodgers have to pay the fine AND pay the RFL back as far as records indicate they haven't had a tax disc, as far as I'm aware...
|
I don't like speed cameras
I do like ANPR
Why?
Human involvement! This is about catching a much broader base of offences through the medium of motoring, rather than just catching motorists for motoring.
|
|
Seems to work. Most of the actual arrests (rather than any other sort of Process) are for crime, some cracking arrests for drugs (excuse the pun)and the motoring offences they do come accross are designed to be dealt with quickly, fixed penalty etc.
|
|
|
|
|
How can they check for insurance dodgers? That's just waste of time. Insurance in UK is issued for driver, not the car, so if driver (not neccessarily the registered owner) has DOC extension (Drive Other Cars clause) to his insurance, or better yet, has trade all cars cover it won't come up in Police database anyway...
|
The percentage of vehicles on the road with DOC, trade AND no insured driver must be miniscule. OK, they may be inconvenianced once in a while, but the uninsured will be getting stopped.
|
|
anpr uses a number of databases to check vehicles. from insurance and road tax to a range of more serious crimes/offences where the driver is wanted for interview/arrest. it always involves being stopped by actual police officers and is very effective. at last the bad guys are being targeted
|
I was stopped several times last year because the cherished transfer plate had been on my mums car, which had been stolen the previous year (on the day of her funeral - thieving scum), and for some reason the DVLA database wouldn't update to indicate it had been recovered.
Each time the officer asked if the car had ever been reported as stolen, and I explained the circumstances. Odd thing is the officers concerned accepted my story without verifying it, which seems to me to partly defeat the purpose of ANPR. I could have been telling a lie afterall. Unless the officer already knew this before pulling me.
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for that Pugugly. As always a comprehensive and entertaining explanation.
|
|
|
|
