Cherished Number Plates News

Aussie ANPR (Number Plates Recognition)

12 November 2008

CrimTrac, the Australian government's criminal information and intelligence agency, is taking the first steps toward developing a nationwide automatic number plate recognition system to capture the vehicle details of suspects and citizens.

The land down under already has in place some ANPR (automatic number plates recognition) systems, which record up to six licence plates per second. The current systems are used to catch speeding drivers on their main roads and to send all registrations back to a database where it is scanned to see if the police or any other agency are looking to locate the whereabouts of the driver or the car itself.

"We have various agencies across a number of states already using ANPR technology," said Darren Booy, ANPR program manager for CrimTrac.

"At the moment, we're conducting a scoping study to determine the feasibility of implementing a national ANPR network," he said.

Those in charge of the new project suspect it may take up to four to five years for the project to go national. The main barrier, which is currently blocking the system, is the question of where they will secure funding for such an ambitious project.

"We looked at the U.K. experience as part of the study; it's probably the most advanced integration of ANPR technology anywhere in the world, and we'll draw on those experiences, but primarily it will have to suit the Australian context," said a leading figure in the project. “

The new project does have privacy in mind however. They stated that although the focus of their work will be on the law enforcement side of thing, they are checking privacy laws and regulation related to such systems.

“What we're looking at is about enhancing public safety, so the benefits to law enforcement have to be considered relative to privacy."