A national Automated Number Plate Recognition system would greatly enhance the ability of police to detect criminal activity that involves the use of motor vehicles. This is a potential future system that could be developed by CrimTrac.
In October 2006, CrimTrac initiated and conducted a workshop of stakeholders from all police services and other government agencies to define the current and future opportunities of implementing a national Automated Number Plate Recognition system in Australia.
The workshop focused on the current use of the technology around the world as well as possible uses of the technology in Australia, and identified a number of opportunities and strategies to maximise the benefits of using this technology.
The Commonwealth government funded a scoping study to examine a national approach to ANPR through Proceeds of Crime money. In September 2007, CrimTrac began preparing a report to outline options and feasibility for a national ANPR capability. The final report has since been delivered to the Minister for Home Affairs and the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management – Police for consideration.
Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is also known as Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR). It uses a camera and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to capture an image of a vehicle, locate the number plate within the image and then convert the number plate value to a text string. The technology works best with digital images. Infra-red and visible spectrum cameras can be used, though infra-red provides suitable images under a wider range of conditions. The text can be compared with databases containing vehicle number plate values used by law enforcement agencies to generate alerts for unregistered or stolen vehicles.
The CrimTrac ANPR Programme has delivered a detailed scoping study report that identifies options and feasibility for a national strategic approach to the use of ANPR technology across Australia. These options have been articulated in a final report to governments.
As part of the scoping study, a project team was set up to actively engage in consulting with stakeholder groups in the law enforcement and road transport domains in Australia. A national whole-of-government Sponsoring Group was instituted to provide oversight and direction to the project team.
Included in the final report is analysis of the current and required national ANPR infrastructure; high level business requirements of participating agencies; technical architecture and system configuration options; a national procurement strategy; a detailed cost-benefit analysis; a legislative review and a detailed Privacy Impact Assessment.
The decision to support the scoping study to determine the feasibility of a future national ANPR capability, does not translate to a decision to implement a national ANPR system. Any such decision is a matter for government (at both federal and state level) at a future time and will be dependent upon a range of factors.