March 17, 2014 1.28 pm This story is over 120 months old

Lincolnshire Police invest in new number plate recognition gear

Number plate recognition: More than £250,000 will be invested to upgrade the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment in Lincolnshire.

More than £250,000 will be invested to upgrade the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment in Lincolnshire.

Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick announced the investment on Monday, March 17.

When a vehicle passes an ANPR device, its registration number is read and instantly checked against a national database records of vehicles of interest.

Police officers can then stop a vehicle, check it for evidence and, where necessary, make arrests.

ANPR data from Lincolnshire Police is submitted to the National ANPR Data Centre (NADC) where it is stored together with similar data from other forces for two years.

Inside North Yorkshire Police's ANPR van, where the technology is used as a valuable tool in fighting crime. Photo: North Yorkshire Police

Inside North Yorkshire Police’s ANPR van, where the technology is used as a valuable tool in fighting crime. Photo: North Yorkshire Police

ANPR has been used in the detection of many offences, including locating stolen vehicles and returning them to their owners, dealing with uninsured drivers, finding missing people and solving cases of serious and organised crime.

In addition to being mounted within police vehicles, ANPR cameras within Lincolnshire Police are used at several fixed locations, which are undisclosed.

PCC Alan Hardwick said: “I have always been committed to making policing in Lincolnshire as efficient and effective as possible.

“Making use of technology like this is an obvious way of doing that. ANPR has over recent years proved itself as an invaluable tool for keeping the people of Lincolnshire safe.

“It also means when a crime does take place, our officers have the best, most up to date crime fighting tools at their disposal,” he added.