Home Office promises savings on single service for UK-wide number plate recognition service
Police forces and law enforcement agencies should make savings of a third from a new nationwide automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) system being rolled out.
Cb>Police forces and law enforcement agencies should make savings of a third from a new nationwide automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) system being rolled out.
The multi-million pound contract, ordered by the Home Office, will make use of existing in-service cameras that can read number plates on fast-moving vehicles in all light and weather conditions.
The new system is being guaranteed for the next six years and will replace several existing platforms and suppliers. For the first time, it will provide a single service to all of the UKs forces.
International electronics and IT giants Selex ES, part of the Finmeccanica group, will develop, supply and support the project, which will provide across-the-board service that should make it easier to deter and disrupt criminal activity while at the same time reducing the cost of operations.
The Home Office said the contracts with Selex ES and Sungard Availability Services would replace and enhance the existing capability which is at the end of its useful life.
A Home Office spokesperson added: “The new service will connect to the existing camera network which is installed and managed by law enforcement agencies, removing the need for 43 separate systems and eradicating the need to duplicate data.
“This new approach should enable police forces and other Government departments to make savings of over 30 per cent in the next six years.
The system will be based on Selex ES`s Enterprise Operating Centre software and database solution, already used on a daily basis by 3,000 Carabinieri officers in Italy and deployed in every US state.
It will allow for the national collection of numberplate data from local ANPR systems and will eventually sustain in the region of 50 million inbound reads per day, while providing an active query capability to thousands of forces.
Together with partners, Selex ES will also provide a platform to collect and store the gathered data to allow further analysis.