POLICE are bringing law-breaking motorists to book, thanks to cutting-edge technology.
For two days last month, officers from the Automatic Number Plate Recognition team, who work across Cheshire, used modern cameras on Liverpool Road, in Sankey.
And they arrested eleven people for a string of offences. These included:
l drink driving
l driving while disqualified
l outstanding warrants
l driving without a vehicle excise licence and theft
l driving without a driving licence and insurance
vehicle theft.
The ANPR system works by linking a camera to a computer that reads vehicle number plates as they pass and checks them against national databases.
If the number plate is matched, for example with a stolen car, the equipment sounds an alert prompting officers to stop the vehicle.
The technology can be used to track vehicles associated with known criminal suspects and crack down on those who abscond from garage forecourts without paying.
Trials show that an officer using ANPR makes 10 times more arrests than normal.
Chief Inspector Peter Madley, responsible for ANPR deployment in the county, said: "The results at Warrington continue to demonstrate the immense power of the technology which enables us to promote intelligence-led policing.
"By having intelligence before we stop vehicles, the incidents of arrests, crime deduction and prevention continue to enable us to achieve our objective of denying criminals the use of the road."
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