Gardaí lack tech to spot vehicles used by criminal gangs
THE Garda Síochána has no fixed Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, despite the fact that their colleagues north of the border say the technology is an ‘invaluable tool’ in the fight against crime.
Sources working along the border said that gardaí regularly work with their PSNI colleagues and can quickly pick up cars involved in crimes if they cross the frontier.
One said: ‘They’re incredibly valuable for intelligence, because these cameras are scanning every number plate. If there’s an alert on a vehicle it pings instantly.
‘If you compare it to Northern Ireland, they have static cameras at every border point and on main roads. When we are looking for vehicles they can come back to you with an answer “that vehicle crossed x border point at x time”. That is standard across Northern Ireland while we have nothing.’ For years, senior gardaí have been calling for ANPR cameras to be rolled out on our motorways to help combat rural crime, but to date the only such cameras available to gardaí are in a few traffic corps cars. In a statement to the Irish Mail on Sunday, the PSNI said ANPR cameras are used extensively across the force, including in various types of patrol cars. The technology scans car registrations before instantly checking the plate against information stored in databases to identify vehicles that have been involved in crime.
The technology has long been seen as crucial by gardaí, but so far funding has not been made available for it to be put in place.
The owner of Alertwatch, a company that supplies ANPR cameras to county councils and private companies here, said it would cost ‘millions’ to install on our motorways.
Pat Wall said: ‘It’s damned expensive, but I think a lot of crime could be solved if these cameras were used. It’s super technology that would cost millions, but you would solve an awful lot of crime. You would deter a lot of crime too.’
Aleks Gaaseby, an engineer with Alertwatch, said the technology available is ‘phenomenal’.
He said: ‘I am often fixing or installing CCTV and gardaí arrive looking for footage. They could save so much time and energy by doing this themselves with the right infrastructure.’
In 2014, then assistant commissioner Derek Byrne told how he had plans to put fixed ANPR cameras at motorway exits.
Five years on, the gardaí remain on the back foot when it comes to the impressive technology.
The PSNI uses ANPR to combat a huge number of crimes.
A source said: ‘ANPR works by scanning vehicle registrations and checking them against information stored in databases to identify vehicles of interest such as stolen vehicles, vehicles with no insurance, other motoring offences or those involved in crimes.’
‘A lot of crime could be solved’