New Sault Police device can now scan licence plates, spot offenders (3 photos, video)

A recently purchased and installed hi-tech Automatic Licence Plate Reader (ALPR) is making the job of Sault Ste. Marie Police Service patrol officers easier, and keeping the roadways safer. 

The ALPR system includes new technology on a computer screen on the dash of one marked Sault Police SUV, with two cameras clearly mounted on the front of the vehicle’s roof, another on the back.

The ALPR’s range is roughly 25 feet, forward and rear.

The device is a time saver for police officers, sparing them the task of spotting licence plates and keying them in manually.

The vehicle’s three cameras can scan six plates a second.

“There is quite a large amount of drivers out there who are suspended who continue to drive, and province wide that’s a difficulty, which is why they’ve increased penalties and sanctions, such as impounding of vehicles,” said Sgt. Ray Magnan of Sault Police Traffic Services.

“I would say suspended drivers, people who have lost their privilege to drive and they’re out there still doing it, are our biggest concern. We see a lot of suspended drivers.”

“We hear the stories of fully licensed drivers getting struck by an unlicensed driver, uninsured, and they can be on the hook with more financial woes because of that person who shouldn’t be on the roadway, so by getting these people off the roadway it makes our city’s streets that much safer.”

“This assists us in getting those people who shouldn’t be on the roadway, off the roadway,” Magnan said Tuesday.

The device can been used to check for expired validation stickers, if licence plates are unattached, if the owner is a suspended or prohibited driver, or if the vehicle is associated to an Amber Alert.

The unit scans a plate, the computer screen then displaying a yellow or red alert along with a beep if something is amiss (a stolen vehicle, prohibited driver, a wanted person or an Amber Alert being higher priority).  

“We can go through a parking lot and scan all the vehicles in minutes (instead of manually typing in every plate)…we can scan for stolen vehicles and other information,” Magnan said.    

The unit will be used 24 hours a day by patrol officers.

The ALPR has been in use by Sault Police for only a week, and “it has already produced a lot of different types of offences…it’s constantly scanning (when in operation, whether the police vehicle is moving or parked),” Magnan said.

“We’ve had a variety of offences…we’ve had unlicensed drivers, suspended drivers for medical reasons, improperly validated permits. One vehicle we stopped, the ALPR went off, the permit was expired since 2014, and the driver was also unlicensed since last summer. We never would have stopped that vehicle, everything looked fine, but the ALPR drew our attention to it.”    

There have been 11.7 million licence checks registered in the ALPR’s system, that data coming from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO), the list updated daily by the Ministry and forwarded to Sault Police and other law enforcement agencies across the province, Magnan said.

The ALPR also contains data provided by the federal Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC).  

The OPP has used the device since 2009, equipped with more than 30 ALPR units, Magnan said.

If a motorist’s license information is in order, then the record of a police scan performed by the ALPR will be off the system in 24 hours, whereas an offence will be kept on record for five years, Magnan said.

That information will be used in court if necessary, police say.

The unit’s price tag was approximately $40,000, purchased from a U.S. manufacturer, Magnan said.

The vehicle in which the ALPR has been installed is not new, but already a part of the current Sault Police vehicle fleet. 

“We’re going to see how it works. I know other police services have added extra units. I heard recently Kingston has two of them, so I can see us adding other units in the future, possibly,” Magnan said.

“The officers who have been training on it, they’re very impressed with it, they say it’s amazing how well it works.”