Police want to plug their automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology into the ACT government's established traffic camera network and along the tram line to detect stolen vehicles and reduce the necessity for pursuits.
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It is one of a raft of measures, including assessing the use of aerial drones, which are contained within the ACT Policing's wide-ranging submission to upcoming Legislative Assembly inquiry into dangerous driving.
ANPR licence plate scanning is used extensively by police throughout the world.
ACT Road Policing vehicles are equipped with ANPR - one of its traffic motorcycles has three cameras, which is unique - and the system can be set up to operate actively, while the vehicle is in motion, or passively while the vehicle is parked.
Each camera can scan up to six plates a second.
If the system detects a "hit" on a licence plate, the location and time is immediately relayed back to the Operations Centre at Winchester Police Centre.
But police believe an expansion of this system to include the ACT traffic camera network would be of huge community benefit, specifically to bring down the territory's surge in stolen vehicles, which according to the latest information published in the ACT Policing annual report, is running at twice the national average and is at its highest in five years.
The ACT government is currently growing its traffic camera network extensively - 30 more are being added within the next few months - under what it describes as its "intelligent transport monitoring".
The primary goal of this camera growth is to help manage the huge amount of traffic disruption coming with the building of the second stage of light rail in the city centre.
However, police believe that adding ANPR surveillance - which would require adding a new real-time data feed from the Roads ACT's traffic camera centre in Fyshwick into police operations at Belconnen - would make a significant difference to its crime-fighting effort.
"For many years the UK Police has successfully utilised ANPR to detect, deter and disrupt criminal activity at a local, regional and national level," police said in their submission.
"UK Police state that ANPR provides lines of enquiry and evidence in the investigation of crime and has proven to be an important tool in the detection of many offences including tracking and locating stolen motor vehicles."
The motivation of stealing a car simply for a "joyride" is an outdated perception, say police. Vehicle theft is now linked a wide range of offences - often very serious ones - which start with burglary and potential home invasion because thieves need the owner's keys, or electronic key fob, to circumvent a vehicle's inbuilt immobiliser.
"Anecdotally, ACT Policing has found that in many incidents involving a stolen motor vehicle, the driver of the vehicle is impaired by either drugs and/or alcohol creating a greater risk to the community," the submission stated.
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Every morning around 2am, Winchester police station makes a secure connection with the ACT Motor Registry where it begins downloading thousands of records containing the names, dates of birth, addresses, licence and registration details of every person who owns or drives a vehicle in the ACT.
That data is then compared to the police's own list of outstanding warrants, stolen vehicles, wanted sex offenders or suspects in criminal investigations.
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