Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) has been in operation throughout the United Kingdom’s CCTV network for several years. This technology is used on motorways, busy roads and petrol station forecourts.

All of the information collected from the ANPR cameras is stored at the National ANPR Data Centre, which is based alongside the Police National Computer, at Hendon, in North London. Details of every vehicle recorded by an ANPR camera are stored on the database for five years. This includes the exact date, time and location of the vehicle.

These records are crosschecked against the Police National Computer for sightings of any vehicle that is of interest to the police in connection with known or suspected involvement in criminal behaviour. The data can also be used to identify vehicles that are being driven without valid insurance, road tax or MOT certificate.

The National ANPR Data Centre has the facilities to data mine. This means that software can trawl through all the data collected from the cameras to identify any patterns that are of interest. This software can produce intelligence based on the movements of a specific vehicle or it can locate cloned vehicles by identifying an impossibly rapid journey.

The Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, Frank Whiteley, is the national lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers ANPR Steering Group. Speaking on the subject of ANPR, he said, “We can use ANPR on investigations or we can use it 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.”