Automatic number plate recognition in the United Kingdom

CCTV cameras

The National ANPR Data Centre is connected to the Police National Computer to provide up-to-date lists of vehicles connected by the police to crimes such as burglary or theft of petrol.[3] Other crosschecks will include insurance-industry data to identify uninsured drivers, vehicles without a valid MoT test certificates, vehicles who have failed to pay for valid vehicle excise duty, and/or with vehicles with unlawful number plates.

The National ANPR Data Centre allows analysis across police force boundaries.[7] If a vehicle enters the ANPR network, the police should have an image of it entering the area, which may also show the driver and passenger. As the data generated is stored for two years the police argue criminals could be identified and linked to vehicles.[7]

The National ANPR Data Centre will make it possible for software to data mine previous sightings of license plate to identify patterns in the data. Patterns can be used to build up intelligence of a vehicle's movements on the road network or to find cloned vehicles by searching the database for impossibly quick journeys.[3][7]

"We can use ANPR on investigations or we can use it looking forward in a proactive, intelligence way. Things like building up the lifestyle of criminals - where they are going to be at certain times. We seek to link the criminal to the vehicle through intelligence. Vehicles moving on the roads are open to police scrutiny at any time. The Road Traffic Act gives us the right to stop vehicles at any time for any purpose" - Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire and Chair of the ACPO ANPR Steering Group[3]

The National ANPR Data Centre uses an Oracle database, and custom-written Java software with specific police networks rather than the internet used to send and receive data.[7] The system will be designed to work with possible future electronic vehicle identification marks on the bodywork of cars.[3]

All police forces have real-time access to ANPR camera data through direct links to the National ANPR Data Centre.[3] Effectively, the police (and the security services) can track any car (technically any numberplate) around the country in close to real time.[6]

The current restraints on police use of ANPR data have been dictated by pragmatism rather than a concern for civil liberties. Giving every police officer free access to the system would overload the system, "make it unstable, slow it down", said John Dean, National ANPR co-ordinator for the Association of Chief Police Officers.[8] ANPR records younger than 91 days can only be accessed on the NADC with an Inspector's authority to investigate serious and major crime. Enquiries over 90 days to a year require a Superintendent's authority and any searches over a year require a Superintendent's authority and must be for Counter Terrorism only.

Mobile ANPR systems such as ProVida ANPR are becoming more popular, with forces having systems in traffic police intercept cars. The advantage of this is that officers can get real time 'hits' from passing vehicles as they are on patrol.

In March 2005, plans were announced to set up a nationwide system of over 2,000 automatic number plate recognition cameras in the United Kingdom.

This followed the successful rollout of Project Spectrum in which all 43 Police Forces in England and Wales were supplied by the Home Office with an ANPR capable mobile unit, and a 'Back Office'. A subsequent series of trials were then commenced in 2002 when the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) was given funding by the Home Office to work with the Police Standards Unit and develop "Project Laser" using the equipment supplied under Project Spectrum. With the aim of running the ANPR system nationwide, it was initially trialled by nine police forces and ran between 30 September 2002 and March 2003. Those police forces covered the areas of Greater Manchester, North Wales, Avon and Somerset, Northampton, London, Kent, West Yorkshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands

The second phase of the project ran between 1 June 2003 and 21 June 2004 and involved 23 police forces in total. The DVLA is also involved with Project Laser, using the system to gather details on unregistered and unlicensed vehicles and those without a valid MOT certificate or insurance cover.

"Eventually the database will link to most CCTV systems in town centres, meaning that all vehicles filmed on one of the many cameras protecting Bedford High Street, for instance, can be checked against the database and the movements of wanted cars traced to help with serious crime investigations."
— Bedfordshire Police

The project was seen as a success despite a Home Office report showing that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) trial had an error rate of up to 40%, with claims that the system was contributing

"…in excess of 100 arrests per officer per year – ten times the national average…"[17]

Further findings went on to show that the error rate dropped to 5% when infrared systems and more regular updates of information were used.

During the second phase of the project around 28 million number plates were spotted in total, with 1.1 million (3.9%) of these matching an entry in one of the databases. 180,543 vehicles were stopped (101,775 directly because of the ANPR system), leading to 13,499 arrests (7.5% of the total) and the issue of 50,910 fines (28.2%). 1,152 stolen vehicles (worth £7.5 million in total), £380,000 worth of drugs and £640,000 worth of stolen goods were also recovered. The primary goal of the second phase was to see how well the costs of the ANPR system could be covered. The final conclusion was that less than 10% of the expenditure incurred was recouped, with the Home Office claiming that the failure of drivers to pay fines contributed to this low figure, and continued to recommend the system be deployed throughout the UK. Report (PDF)

Funding is now in place for the construction of the National ANPR Data Centre capable of holding 50 million ANPR reads per day, destined to form the basis of a vehicle movement database.[18]

There have been stories in the national press suggesting that the use of the network could be extended to catch drivers using mobile phones illegally, and those failing to wear seat belts,[19] although the current system only retains text-strings consisting of number, date, & time.

Project Champion is a project to install a £3m network of 169 ANPR cameras to monitor vehicles entering and leaving the Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath neighbourhoods of Birmingham, both of which have large Muslim communities. Its implementation was frozen in June 2010 amid allegations that the police deliberately misled councillors about its purpose, after it was revealed that it was being funded as an anti-terrorism initiative, rather than for 'reassurance and crime prevention'.[20][21]

The success of ANPR in detecting vehicles of interest to police has led to a new kind of crime - car cloning. Criminals target vehicles of the same make and model to copy these number plates so that ANPR systems will record a read on the make and model relating to a fake number plate. Any legal transgressions could then lead to the legitimate owner receiving notification of enforcement action instead of the criminal. There is very little monitoring of number plate manufacture, particularly websites offering "vanity plates" (plates that are usable only in off-road circumstances, such as car shows) and this gives criminals avenues to attempt to evade detection, however ANPR will often show that there are multiple vehicles using the same registration number and prove that the genuine owner is innocent as well as providing images to identify the culprits.[27]