Common Questions about ANPR cameras
It’s no secret that there are plenty of questions on the use of automatic number plate recognition. We’ve been looking for the answers, and these are some of your most popular queries. In this blog post, we’ll answer each question and help you understand ANPR systems in the UK.
What is an ANPR camera?
Automatic number plate recognition cameras are equipped with a camera that can read license plates which saves time and effort, unlike certain speed cameras that require an operator to take the photo.
When this extracted registration plate is passed on to the police, they contact a database which checks to see if there are any flags or violations. Below are some of these.
How does ANPR work?
The auto number plate recognition system works by reading the number plate of a car and automatically extracting the vehicle registration mark from an image taken by a fast camera.
Most ANPR cameras will provide infrared capabilities to help it function in a variety of conditions. This includes even pitch black and direct sunlight, as well as .
Do all police cars have ANPR?
A lot of police cars are equipped with a device that recognizes number plates and automatically looks for wanted individuals. It’s difficult to find how many are so we won’t go into the specifics.
Similarly, we don’t know exactly how many static ANPR systems there are or where they are located. It’s likely that the location and number would be too easy for those breaking the rules to avoid them. The latest estimate is 9000 .
What do ANPR cameras look like?
In the UK, most of the police ANPR cameras will either be situated on a tripod over a motorway or situated to overlook a motorway and completely green in colour.
Cars equipped with ANPR software are hard to spot. They can work on any camera, so there’s no way to identify them other than visual sightings.
What do ANPR cameras check for?
ANPR cameras can do a lot of things. They can check for a wide variety of criteria and contain links to databases with key data points to check against. These are the primary functions the camera is programmed to do, but it likely contains much more.
- Is the car in a good condition?
- Is the vehicles insured
- Has the vehicle paid road tax
- Is the driver wanted for criminal activities
- Checks that the vehicle registration is legitimate, not cloned.
Automatic number plate recognition car parks
Recent developments in parking often include automatic number plate recognition. So when you drive in, the time will be logged automatically and you’ll have to pay a certain amount of time. After leaving the car park, the system will stop the timer. This will help to accurately track how long each person has been in the car park.
Parking in car parks with this kind of system means that you won’t have to use your parking space after taking a photo of your registration. There are two ways this could happen; there are barriers that automatically lift after taking a photo, or cameras dotted around the carpark.