North Yorkshire Police’s ability to tackle cross-border crime received a boost as they make an additional £1m investment in car number plate recognition technology to target travelling criminals. At present, a quarter of all detected crimes in North Yorkshire are perpetrated by cross-border criminals, who take advantage of the region’s large geography and road network to prey on local communities.
As well as theft and rural crimes, cross-border criminals can be involved in a wide range of other offences, including child sexual exploitation.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is already used by many forces (including North Yorkshire) to identify criminals en route, and build intelligence on their movement patterns. However, the new investment will allow North Yorkshire Police to increase its coverage across the region, refine its intelligence team, and deploy officers proactively to disrupt criminals in their vehicles.
Chief Constable Dave Jones said: ”I am delighted with this decision to improve our capability in tackling cross-border crime. It is an area where we are already very successful, through initiatives like Operation Hawk, but this will take us to the next level. However, ANPR is just one piece of the jigsaw.
Even more important are the changes we are making across the service to reduce red-tape, bring in new ways of working, and generally improve the service we offer to the people of North Yorkshire.
These are challenging times for police services across the country, but through our Operational Policing Model we are doing everything we can to ensure that the police service is effective and efficient, and that officers spend their time where it really matters – out in the community keeping people safe.”
The decision is part of a wider programme of activity, called the Operational Policing Model (OPM).The OPM includes a series of initiatives to improve efficiency across the police service, target offenders more precisely, and bring swifter justice to victims of crime. Technology is a major feature of the programme, as part of an overall drive to reduce bureaucracy, so resources can be focused on frontline police out in the community.
MAV are proud to work with police forces across the world in providing the ANPR cameras that support the reduction in criminal activity. Technology is placing an increasingly important part in policing and provides further tools to ensure the safety and security of communities in many countries. To find out more about the use of ANPR within the police visit our law enforcement page or view our downloads.
Source: Harrogate Informer
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