OPP NEWS RELEASE
***************************** OPP licence plate recognition project means traffic offenders more easily detected on roads and highways
TORONTO - The Ontario Provincial Police are now better able to detect crime and identify offenders on our roads and highways, thanks to a sophisticated licence plate recognition project launched at a news conference in Toronto today.
OPP cruisers equipped with the new automatic licence plate recognition (ALPR) system now have the ability to scan thousands of licence plates per day, and officers can more quickly and easily identify stolen and non-compliant vehicles that are in violation of Criminal Code and Highway Traffic Act (HTA) laws, and take appropriate action.
ALPR is state-of-the-art technology that involves the use of a stationary camera which is mounted on a police vehicle.
The automatic licence plate recognition system has outstanding image capture capability and the camera has the ability to scan licence plates that enter the camera's field of view whether the vehicle is moving, parked or even travelling at a high rate of speed.
Once the camera captures the plate's image, it is checked against a police and Ministry of Transportation (MTO) database "hotlist" of licence plates that are in poor standing such as, for example, those associated with stolen vehicles, plates that are suspended, reported stolen or missing and those with expired validation tags.
The OPP's ALPR project consists of three fully marked OPP vehicles equipped with the latest ALPR and Mobile Workstation technology. One will be deployed in the GTA, one in Eastern Ontario and the other in Northern Ontario.
Quotes
"The benefits of ALPR technology to policing have been measured and established around the world and with the support of our partners at the Ministry of Transportation, this will be an effective crime fighting tool that will further increase our visibility in traffic enforcement, improve compliance on our roads and highways and enhance our Provincial Traffic Safety Program." - Julian Fantino, commissioner, Ontario Provincial Police.
"Helping police quickly identify those vehicles that should not be on our roads will make our roads safer." - Transportation Minister Jim Bradley.
"This state-of-the-art recognition technology will help the OPP cast a wider net to identify stolen vehicles or those driving with invalid licence plates. This is a fine example of the OPP using innovative technology to help keep us all safer." - Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci.
"With our new ALPR equipped vehicles, we can scan thousands of plates per day and more easily target stolen vehicles, and millions of plates suspected of being in poor standing. This sends an important message to drivers who are in violation of Criminal Code and Highway Traffic Act laws that they will now be significantly more visible and vulnerable to being identified by our officers." - C/Supt. Bill Grodzinski, divisional commander, Highway Safety Division.
Quick facts
- The ALPR hotlist will enable the OPP to target an estimated 5 to 7 million Ontario plates suspected of being in poor standing, and they will have Canada-wide access to stolen vehicle information.
- As of 1990, approximately 22 million licence plates are suspected of being in poor standing in Ontario.
- In optimum conditions, ALPR is capable of scanning approximately 7,000 plates per hour.
*****************************