HIGH-TECH vehicles from Merseyside Police are being used for the first time in Ipswich town centre tonight in a bid to reassure local people.The force has sent the Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) vehicles as part of the “mutual aid” arrangements.
HIGH-TECH vehicles from Merseyside Police are being used for the first time in Ipswich town centre tonight in a bid to reassure local people.
The force has sent the Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) vehicles as part of the “mutual aid” arrangements.
As well as helping to provide additional reassurance, the cars -with Merseyside Police markings - will also check the number-plates of vehicles travelling into the town centre to help combat crime.
ANPR has the ability to spot vehicles used by offenders and the system works by reading number plates of passing vehicles.
The plates are filmed by video cameras and then fed back to a computer system which checks them against one or more databases.
If a match is found an alarm sounds and the relevant vehicle can then be stopped.
The technology will be operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are in addition to Suffolk police's ANPR capabilities, a spokesman said.
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