South African Police (Saps) Use License Plate Recognition (LPR)to Help Catch Criminals

LPR or License Plate Recognition systems have more uses than before, such as helping South African Police (SAPS) catch criminals.

LPR systems continue to progress and are better armed than ever in helping SAPs protect property and save lives. South African Police use LPR to enforce traffic regulation, reduce gasoline theft and even apply LPR to the tracking of known murder suspects.

About 70 percent of serious crime involving motor cars in South Africa require the use of plate numbers as an important crime fighting tools to identify and track these offenders. The capability of License Plate Recognition technology to help South African law enforcement is more essential now than before.

Newer developments in License Plate Recognition are allowing for LPR-associated technologies to proactively help law enforcement. Cameras can now detect approaching cars, and then track and follow these vehicles. Distributed networks can now follow a vehicle around the entire city.

Prior to LPR, police needed special sensor set up in roadways and wireless detectors or tracking devices. These devices not only carried high costs, but also difficulty in portability and slowness to deploy.

License Plate Readers are now attached on police patrols cars and provide a powerful investigative tools for the officer to track hundreds or even thousands number of plate numbers in a single day. Recent police information shows that 4 scanner-equipped cars do thousands of scans per day and over one million scans a year.

The deployment of license plate recognition assists with parking lot capability analysis, pattern analysis, traffic volume, detecting abnormal car behavior as well as detecting criminal activity and criminal database scanning for the South African police.

The latest in LPR technology enables for faster setup and an interconnected network to onsite security officers and law enforcement letting them know in real time when an alert is triggered. With today’s internet and cellphone network, there is no lag time from when an alert is received, and action taken by law enforcement or security personnel.

License plate recognition cameras are utilized more often along with other security technologies like video surveillance wherein license plate recognition cameras also trigger camera actions such as recordings, or the opening of gates and booms.

Adding LPR systems to a road interdiction unit will not just facilitate law enforcement in fighting local crime, it also plays an important role in helping other regional organizations stem the trafficking of illegal drugs throughout the region.

License Plate Recognition or LPR has lots of valuable uses. It is an incredibly important tool for government and private companies. LPR helps track, identify as well as catch offenders and criminals.