Cars pulled up in police blitz

Evening Standard

08/09/04 - London news section

Cars pulled up in police blitz

By Patrick Mcgowan

In police jargon it is an ANPR check and the chances are it will be coming soon to a busy road near you.

You may think you have been driving impeccably, but if you have not paid your road tax or your car is logged on computer as having been involved in crime, you will quickly find yourself pulled to the roadside.

The letters stand for Automatic Number Plate Reader, the same technology used in enforcing the congestion charge. It can read hundreds of car numbers a minute at up to 100mph.

Once the mobile unit is set up at the roadside it effectively screens the flow of traffic, filtering out those cars which could be of interest to police.

A short distance down the road a score of police are waiting to check the occupants. If they don't feel like stopping, the Metropolitan Police helicopter is on standby.

This check was set up for several hours in Kennington Oval and every few minutes another driver was pulled in and closely questioned.

Main routes into and around London are being targeted almost daily by nearly 100 officers from the Met, British Transport Police and other forces including Hertfordshire and Essex.

They work on the principle that many major as well as minor criminals drive some distance between their homes and the places where they commit offences. Until the arrival of ANPR technology, the chances of a known suspect's car being spotted en route by an alert traffic patrol were slim.

The value of number plate screening became apparent in the Nineties when the City Police set up static cameras to monitor all vehicles entering or leaving their area at a time when the IRA was a major threat.

Lesser criminals quickly learned to avoid the Square Mile as any stolen vehicle was likely to trigger alarms in the police control room.

The professional burglar is a particular target of the ANPR check. He may not have been caught red-handed but if his car was spotted in suspicious circumstances near a break-in and the number entered on the Police National Computer, the next time he is pulled in he may have your stereo in the boot.

Even if he does not, the mere fact that he is pulled over and his vehicle thoroughly searched may act as a serious deterrent.

A test of ANPR in nine police forces outside London last year led to the arrest of 3,000 people in six months, the recovery of 300 stolen vehicles and the seizure of £100,000 drugs.

Use of ANPR technology across the country is expected to lead to an extra 200,000 arrests a year and the recovery of £ 200 million in unpaid road tax and fines.

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