Road safety 

Automatic number plate recognition

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is a policing tool which reads vehicle number plates and checks them against various computer databases, such as the Police National Computer (PNC) and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

Most criminals rely on vehicles to committ crime. ANPR is designed to make it much more difficult for criminals to use vehicles without being detected.

ANPR cameras are located in mobile police vans, in Roads Policing patrol cars, at dedicated fixed sites and via closed-circuit television (CCTV) schemes in urban areas.

How ANPR works

• As a vehicle passes through an ANPR video camera, it takes an image of the number plate.
• The number plate details are fed into a system which checks them against sources such as the Police National Computer (PNC), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), local Force intelligence systems and motor insurers' databases.
• If the number plate matches one of these sources, the ANPR equipment will beep. Vehicles which have sounded an alert will be stopped by police officers for further investigation or to gather intelligence. Read about stop and search in a vehicle.
• Only vehicles that are highlighted by enforcement agency databases will be stopped. Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from ANPR operations.

Benefits of ANPR

• ANPR identifies suspect vehicles that may not normally attract police attention.
• Unlicensed or uninsured vehicles are likely to be seized on the spot by ANPR-equipped officers.
• It can be used to gather intelligence on known criminals, and for running pro-active operations using dedicated Roads Policing intercept teams.

ANPR cameras are not 'safety' cameras - they are not used in Thames Valley to catch speeding or otherwise law-abiding motorists. ANPR cameras are not used to generate money for the government or other agencies.

The use of ANPR by Thames Valley Police fully complies with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998.