November 2, 2004: New Technology Raises Arrest Rates

Results published today in a study entitled 'Driving crime down: Denying criminals the use of the road' indicate that a hi-tech vehicle number plate scanning system has seen police arrest rates rise significantly. The study highlights the increasing impact of technological advances on crime detection.

The year long pilot study named 'Laser 2' of of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology began in June 2003. ANPR instantly scans vehicle number plates and matches them against information stored against police databases to identify stolen vehicles or those involved in crime. Once identified by the system, suspicious vehicles are intercepted by the police. ANPR systems can check up to 3,000 number plates per hour on vehicles travelling up to 100 mph.

The pilot was undertaken in 23 police forces across England and Wales. During the study period, ANPR teams across these 23 forces produced nine/ten times the national average arrest rate per officer, totalling more than 13,000 arrests. £8 million worth of drugs and property were seized.

ANPR is not a new technology, but it was only recently that the full potential to tackle criminality was realized. In 2002, a number of police forces increased their use of ANPR systems to include dedicated intercept officers. These officers were able to intercept and stop vehicles of interest identified by the ANPR systems. The intention was that targeted enforcement would detect, disrupt and deter criminality.

A 6 month evaluation of the use of these dedicated intercept officers (‘Laser 1’) showed the concept to be extremely effective, achieving arrest rates many times that of conventional policing. Since 1 June 2003, the 23 forces have operated dedicated intercept officers (‘Laser 2’).The Home Office estimates that national roll-out of ANPR would lead to approximately 26,400 additional offences being brought to justice.

The ANPR intercept teams stopped a total of 180,543 vehicles. From these stops, the intercept officers arrested 13,499 persons, including:

• 2,263 arrests for theft and burglary
• 3,324 arrests for driving offences (for example driving whilst disqualified)
• 1,107 arrests for drugs offences
• 1,386 arrests for auto crime (theft from and of vehicles)

They recovered or seized property, including:

• 1,152 stolen vehicles (valued at over £7.5 million)
• 266 offensive weapons and 13 firearms
• drugs worth over £380,000 from 740 vehicles
• stolen goods worth over £640,000 from 430 vehicles

They issued fixed penalty notices, including:

•  22,825 tickets for failing to display VED
• 6,299 for no insurance
• 1,496 for no MOT
• 20,290 for a variety of other offences

A national data centre will be created to exchange ANPR-read data from across the UK for post-incident investigation and to support work to tackle terrorism and organised crime.Home Secretary David Blunkett notes that although it is only one policing tool, ANPR has uses in a range of areas, including tackling volume crime, serious & organised crime, counterterrorism, and in intelligence gathering. It has also proven an asset in tackling the ‘underclass’ of vehicles that are incorrectly registered, untaxed and uninsured. The full study is available for download here.

Mr Blunkett said:

"ANPR is a powerful tool, unique in its ability to impact on crime at every level, from local volume crime through cross-border and organised crime and counter terrorism. It brings enormous benefits to the police and to society… ANPR is a shining example of how targeted police operations deliver positive results."