Camera system will target car crimes

2:55pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

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ILLEGAL drivers and car thieves will have nowhere to run - thanks to the installation of special police cameras.

Twelve permanent Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, which have the capability to check 600,000 car number plates every 24 hours, have been installed on roads leading into Manchester city centre.

Described as a technological breakthrough, the ANPR system allows the rapid reading and identification of number plates, enabling Greater Manchester Police to check vehicles of interest, such as stolen cars or those being driven without insurance or MOTs.

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson said: "ANPR is unique in its ability to impact on crime at every level, from local volume crime through to cross border and organised crime and counter terrorism.

"These new fixed camera sites will bring enormous benefits to the police and aid us in protecting our communities.

"ANPR is an excellent intelligence-led policing tool. The cameras that are now in place will provide police officers with an additional source of information during the vital early stages of major investigations and will also assist in our continued fight against terrorism."

The fixed sites, whose locations are not being revealed, use specialist cameras as an additional investigating tool to scan passing vehicle registrations entering a specific area and then check them against information stored in a variety of databases, including the Police National Computer, DVLA databases and local intelligence databases.