Steal a Number Plate Avoid ANPR

ANPR was invented to ‘combat terrorism’ but is now used to enforce the most minor of road traffic offenses; the whole system is 100% reliant on the number plate being the correct.

The question of “why would a criminal use the correct number plate on their car?” leaps to mind.

The police are already aware of the problem and the Superintendent John Wake at ACPO’s Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service recently stated “I don’t have confidence that beyond that you can identify that that vehicle is the legitimate vehicle for that plate”.

According to the DVLA & Police more than 40,000 sets of number plates were stolen in 2006, a rise of almost 25%. Because of this ACPO wants tamper proof plates and a central number plate issuing deparment. The DVLA is currently considering requiring all forcing all motorcycles (1.3 million) to be fitted with plates featuring electronic tags, which have been tested around the UK.

A car can be cloned, simply by stealing the plate of a similar car, and putting it on another car. This way when the “suspect” car goes through a speed camera, congestion point, or ANPR camera, the lawful owner of the cloned car ,who has done nothing wrong, will get a ticket, automatically, and will have great difficulty in proving they are innocent,. The innocent party will be required to prove they are innocent.

The Met Police think that the cloning has increased because of the amount of camera based detection of “offences”. Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Glen Smyth said the ‘problem has grown because of the amount of camera-based enforcement of traffic offences, which relies on computer records on who owns which car’.

This means that ANPR was invented to combat terrorism, it was then used to ‘combat’ the scourge of no road tax, but this then created a new breed of offences, so we are now creating new laws and new technology to resolve the issue of car cloning.

600,000 Cars Tracked a Day in Manchester via ANPR

GMP combines wireless CCTV and ANPR to collect more data

A supplier to the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) recently announcing that it’s now “virtually impossible to drive a car into the centre [of Manchester] without having its licence plate, colour and time of entry recorded.”

The scheme involves ringing the city with CCTV cameras, which use a wireless network to send back information to be checked by the police.

Around 600,000 number plates are recorded as day, and stored up to five years.

National ANPR Stratergy

These are are some highlights on the ANPR Strategy 2005 to 2008 from ACPO, the full report is at the bottom of this post.

• ANPR was designed/restricted for terrorsim, but will now be used for everything from fixed pentalty tickets upwards.
• ANPR should be paid for by fixed penalty tickets, and hence will be used more in that way.
• ANPR is to be run nationally in the UK, reading from multiple databases, and allowing police (and presumably other agencies) to read the records of the ANPRs around the country. This will provide a complete track of vehicles around the country.
• The aim is to have over 50 milion ANPR reads a day.

Below are extracts from the actual report.

“The British Police Service are world leaders in the application of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, a technology that was itself invented in the United Kingdom. Whilst use of ANPR technology in its first twenty years was largely restricted to counter terrorism purposes, there has been significant development in the use of ANPR in a wider policing environment in recent years. “

Funding and Targets

” Continuing to seek funding to assist the development and roll out of ANPR, such as the recent SR 2004 funding (see appendix 1, para 11 )

· Working with central and regional government to encourage forces to agree with local partners appropriate use of partnership funds, such as the Safer Stronger Communities Fund, to support ANPR activity in achieving Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership targets.

· Encouraging Police Forces to undertake ANPR activity as an integral part of mainstream policing activity, ultimately to be funded from core capital and revenue budgets (see appendix 1, para 12 )

· Working with HMIC to ensure a greater proportion of ANPR activity will count toward Force Efficiency Plan targets (see appendix 1, para 13 )

· Support all Forces in introducing the hypothecation of ANPR related Fixed Penalty Notice income under Project Laser 3″

National Infrastructe

• Establishing a national ANPR camera and reader infrastructure utilising police, local authority, Highways Agency, other partner and commercial sector cameras (see appendix 1, para 18 )
• Establishing the National ANPR Data Centre (NADC) to hold all ANPR hotlists and reads on a national basis

Increase Monitoring via different databases

• Working to improve the quality and timeliness of intelligence databases feeding into ANPR systems and develop links to further databases at national and Force levels

Key Targets – 50 millon reads per day

National multi-agency ANPR Programme Board established	January 2005
Cross Governmental National ANPR Strategy agreed by Ministers	February 2005
ANPR Strategy for the Police Service agreed by ACPO Cabinet	February 2005
Dartford River Crossing ANPR systems go live	February 2005
Revised National ACPO ANPR Standards published	February 2005
Roll out of BOF II to Forces begins	March 2005
Second National ACPO ANPR Conference	March 2005
Details of Forces SR 2004 bids agreed by PSU	March 2005
DVLA data distributed electronically to forces	March 2005
Revised PSU National ANPR data collection template agreed	March 2005
Launch of Project Laser 3 (all forces)	April 2005
ACPO ANPR Co-ordination Team to include intelligence Expert	April 2005
HMIC inspection protocol for ANPR agreed	April 2005
Vehicle intelligence awareness campaign launched	April 2005
Specialist ANPR training packages agreed	April 2005
First National mapping of ANPR camera sites	Spring 2005
Motor insurance database available for ANPR	Summer 2005
DVLA CJX accredited	Summer 2005
Piloting of Airwave with real time ANPR checks	Summer 2005
New legislation to enable ANPR activity implemented	Summer 2005
Mobile fingerprint equipment available to forces for purchase	Autumn 2005
Further SR2004 bid result	Autumn 2005
All forces to have at least one dedicated ANPR intercept team	October 2005
National ANPR Data Centre complete (to 35million reads per day)	March 2006
SR2004 money for 2005/06 spend complete	March 2006
All forces to have introduced schemes for seizure of untaxed and Uninsured vehicles	March 2006
Review of ANPR Strategy	March 2006
Disqualified driving and drink driving become part of OBTJ	April 2006
Extension of NADC to 50 million reads	March 2008
ANPR intercept teams extended to equivalent of one per BCU	April 2008

ANPR Startergy 2005 to 2008

More companies profit from ANPR

While the hardware industry of CCTV recording, and the software industry of reading the images collected by CCTV, have been working with the goverment for a long time on ANPR, new group of software companies are now working in the industry.

i2, a company that produces software for building patterns and making connections between people, through phone numbers, credit card recods, email addresses, etc, has now produced software to work with ANPR.

This software will link in with i2′s other database products allowing police and businesses a like to keep track of the criminal, citizens and employees far more effectively. It would be interesting to know if i2 was provided with a substantial amount of data from goverment ANPR cameras in order to build and test the latest database software.

“i2 is unlocking the full potential of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) data gathered by cameras across the country.

ANPR data led to more than 20,000 vehicle seizures and 18,000 arrests in 2006 and has firmly established itself as a valuable tool to the UK’s police forces. However, the significance of the gathered information could be far greater.”

http://www.i2.co.uk/company/press/default.asp?action=view&id=75

Met and TFL get ANPR and excempt from DPA

Date: 17 July 2007

Transport for London and the Met Police not only use ANPR but are now exempt from certain parts of the Data Protection act, after the Home Secretary (Jacqui Smith as the time), signed a certificate to exempt them.

The Minister of State, Home Department (Mr. Tony McNulty): I would like to inform the House that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has signed a certificate to exempt Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) from certain provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 to facilitate the bulk transfer of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) data from TfL to the MPS. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police believes that it is necessary due to the enduring, vehicle-borne terrorist threat to London. The MPS requires bulk ANPR data from TfL’s camera network in London specifically for terrorism intelligence purposes and to prevent and investigate such offences. The infrastructure will allow the realtime flow of data between TfL and the MPS.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070717/wmstext/70717m0002.htm#07071769000274