Police forces team up for number plate scanning

Police in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire have joined forces on a project to share technology that will allow them to scan car number plates and automatically check them against police intelligence databases.

Derbyshire Constabulary has used mobile automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology on its traffic police vehicles since 1999 and is the lead authority on the five-year framework deal that could be extended to other east Midlands police forces.

The ANPR technology cross-references various databases including the Police National Computer, local intelligence systems and DVLA systems and alerts traffic police to what are classed as "vehicles of interest" that need to be stopped for further checks.

Chief inspector Paul Berry, head of the Derbyshire road policing unit, said in a statement: "ANPR is a useful tool in helping us to deprive criminals of the use of the roads. We will continue to develop the use of ANPR in the county in order to make the roads safer for all and to combat the use of vehicles on our roads by criminals."

The value of the framework deal, which was awarded to Civica, has not been disclosed.

The government is spending £15m to support ANPR development through to 2006 with the aim of developing a national network of thousands of cameras that will scan number plates and check them against police databases.

The trial of the technology last year ran into problems because of the poor quality of the data held in the DVLA databases but both the DVLA and police forces have since said that steps have been taken to improve it.