Automated License Plate Recognition

jedmonds

New Member
Aug 26, 2010
4
Chicago, IL
I work as an installer of Automated License Plate Recognition. I've looked around on this site for posting about it, but haven't seen much. My company works nation wide, and there are 3 other installers on board with us, its a lot of travel, but in one year we went from designing our product, to over 100 customers on net. You can find some of the work we've done below. Does anyone have experience with License Plate Recognition? Good or bad? What manufacturer? What is the application you've used it? I would love to hear some success stories.


Thanks, Joe

IMG00084-20100719-1611.jpg

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Head on.JPG
 

911

New Member
May 22, 2010
3,834
New York City
NYPD auto crime has them in rooftop cargo carriers on suvs, cut into the corners...


to the naked eye ,they blend in..... looks great actually, only thing giving it away is the lojack antenna's coming out of the top of the cargo shell
 

unlisted

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 20, 2010
7,333
NA
911 said:
NYPD auto crime has them in rooftop cargo carriers on suvs, cut into the corners...

to the naked eye ,they blend in..... looks great actually, only thing giving it away is the lojack antenna's coming out of the top of the cargo shell
photos?
 

RL1

Member
May 20, 2010
1,649
Ga
I've only seen them in person once and it was very brief. I would love to try the system out, but know my dept will never get them. I think it's a great concept and think it will evolve to the point every police car has a version of the system.
 

cajunblitz

Member
May 20, 2010
1,217
Saint Martin Parish LA
jedmonds said:
I work as an installer of Automated License Plate Recognition. I've looked around on this site for posting about it, but haven't seen much. My company works nation wide, and there are 3 other installers on board with us, its a lot of travel, but in one year we went from designing our product, to over 100 customers on net.
Thanks, Joe

Hi Joe,


What is the name of the company you work for? Are the installs a mandatory part of the ALPR package purchase? How does one get on board installing the ALPRs if they know what they're doing?
 

911

New Member
May 22, 2010
3,834
New York City
unlisted, sorry i only seen it in person 3 times,and i never thought to take a picture, as it wasnt the time or place to do so anyway...........
 

jedmonds

New Member
Aug 26, 2010
4
Chicago, IL
911 said:
NYPD auto crime has them in rooftop cargo carriers on suvs, cut into the corners...

to the naked eye ,they blend in..... looks great actually, only thing giving it away is the lojack antenna's coming out of the top of the cargo shell

We've all been dying to get our hands on a covert unit. We've been to busy with customers and haven't had a good excuse though!
 
May 20, 2010
215
Hamilton, Ohio
The department i work for has one cruiser with ALPR installed on it, it is a 3 head unit. I am not sure who the manufacturer is, we got the device on a grant, but the camera heads look the same as the one in your pictures. I drove the car for a 12-hour shift and i can tell you they are nice having on a cruiser. I was very suprised with the accuracy of the cameras, especially at vehicles traveling past me in excess of 50mph.
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
UK cops have been using them for years (It's called ANPR there, N for Number), event putting together "ANPR INTERCEPTING TEAMS". France has started testing some last year in Paris. Most systems here are located in or near the lightbar.


They are switched on as the car patrols, and randomly read licence plates, then blips if one plate comes back as "stolen vehicle" from the database. No private use as far I can tell, since the systems are sold to LE agencies only.
 

RJ*

Member
May 21, 2010
346
Finland
TheGatekeeper said:
No private use as far I can tell, since the systems are sold to LE agencies only.

Not quite so. I have seen them used at larger seaports and logistics terminals - the computer system knows which cargo truck has which cargo, the plate is read when entering, and signs will then guide the truck to the right warehouse.
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
Right. My mistake.


So let's say "systems are sold to LE agencies and various authorities".


You are right though, I think even Eurotunnel terminals are set upwith ANPR.
 

emsgeorge

New Member
Jul 6, 2010
3
Its a little bit more spread than that in the UK currenty:


Private comapnies etc can use ANPR, as long as they buy the kit.


ANPR started when the IRA was bombing london, and it was trialled in the 'ring of steel' around the square mile of central london.


Every force in the UK now has ANPR fitted vehicles - from one of 3 companies generally - PIPS Technology (which is now owned by FS), Genesis, and Honeywell / microbus.


Generally, its only traffic units and specialist teams which have them fitted, and they run through the cars computer terminal. They update with information from the PNC (police National Computer) system, via the TETRA radio / data network. some forces haven't implimented the direct links with the tetra system, and so burn a dvd with info in the morning, and then load it into the car on a daily basis.


Some pro active forces (like Essex police) have intercepting teams, which consist of a few high powered vehicles (mits evos, Subaru impretzas, ford focus ST etc), and a van, which sits on a motoroway bridge, with the ANPR cameras either on tripods, or sticking out of the rear windows. The van has an officer with the anpr kit inside, and he simply shouts the 'hits' over the radio, enabling the cars to be stopped by the rest of the team a few hundred yards down the road.


Government / agencies that use the kits (mobile) are such people as Police, DVLA (road tax people)


The spread of anpr in the UK is huge - now, out of town retail parks have anpr fitted to the entrances / exits of their car parks, which monitor the time you came in, and went out at. If there is a limit of. say. 2 hours at that car park, then the system flags up your 'overstay', and the parking company apply to the driving licence authority for your address details, and send you a charge. These systems dont have any data other than the data it collects, and only parking companies that have been approved can get the owners info from the DVLA.


Shopping centres with large car parks have it fitted - and again, use it for a variety of uses - from 'ive lost my ticket, I dont know how long ive been here', to 'known shoplifter vehicle' etc. They generally keep the licence plate details of the vehicles for anyhting up to 3 months. Ive installed systems which will keep until the hard drive gets full, and it ends up being a 2 terra drive !.


One other use that's growing hugely over here in the UK, is the baliff mobile kit - much like your 'repo' agents, baliffs over here are looking to clamp / boot or sieze vehicles that have unpaid parking tickets against them. The baliffs are privately operated, and usually take a comission on the number of paid tickets. Its not always they find the vehicles at the owners addresses, and so they go around hunting them.


One system in London, operated by just one baliff company, has on average 5600 vehicles 'active' at one time, who are wanted for unpaid parking tickets. For them, its an easy day, as they simply drive the streets. The cameras read every parked car's plate, and if its a match, bingo, they get the clamp out.


I'm really surprised that the US hasn't taken ANPR / ALPR by storm, as the police version flags up sooooooo many small violations, which sometimes end up with huge busts. Is there any reason, or is nobody really pushing it (from a manufacturers point of view)
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
Jeez, I knew the UK was into ANPR for years, but I find amazing that shopping malls are allowed such an intrusive system ! Although I understand it's destined more to locate a vehicle, rather than compare to an official database, I find it quite unsettling that any private outfit could have access to personal details via DVLA just because you were on a given parking at a certain time. What happened to privacy? Where are your civil liberties groups? ;o)


As for the US, I also wondered...


Perhaps the many variations in licence plate types (probably as many as there are states?) made the technical challenge a bit more difficult. Here in Europe all cars from a same country usually display the same tag type of sequence, in the same colors. Even personalized plates in the UK are just tags with a specific, alpha numeric sequence. No difference in colors, shape or form with a "regular" plate number.
 

RJ*

Member
May 21, 2010
346
Finland
I remember reading they are also using it for parking enforcement in London. A car with a computer, GPS, map software and ANPR. No need for meter maids to walk around writing tickets - just drive past, the GPS + map knows where the parking and no-parking areas are, ANPR reads the violator plates, and you get your parking ticket in the mail.
 

philyumpshus

Member
Jun 20, 2010
1,281
Malone, NY
How much does one of these systems cost? It would obviously cost more to outfit the NYPD than some small village department, but there must be some standard costs involved. I figured that the reason it hasn't caught on in the US is because of lack of funding. Our village PD has it on one of their cars (5 total?) and some of the SP cars and sheriffs have it.


I was watching TV a while ago (Repo Men maybe?) and they had this system in a minivan. They would drive around and search for the cars they needed and when they did, they'd call the repo truck and tow the car away.
 

proled

Member
Sep 8, 2010
103
Belgium
TheGatekeeper said:
Jeez, I knew the UK was into ANPR for years, but I find amazing that shopping malls are allowed such an intrusive system ! Although I understand it's destined more to locate a vehicle, rather than compare to an official database, I find it quite unsettling that any private outfit could have access to personal details via DVLA just because you were on a given parking at a certain time. What happened to privacy? Where are your civil liberties groups? ;o)

Shopping mails don't 'have' all your information, just the time you arrived in their car park :D I remember a funny story of the ex-boss of the Met Police - his ex-car kept being 'pick up' for driving off without paying for petrol as the new owner had not changed the vehicle details :roll: :lol:
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
proled said:
Shopping mails don't 'have' all your information, just the time you arrived in their car park :D I remember a funny story of the ex-boss of the Met Police - his ex-car kept being 'pick up' for driving off without paying for petrol as the new owner had not changed the vehicle details :roll: :lol:

So what you are saying is, that it does not match against a database, but basically against itself?


ie: vehicles in vs vehicles out, extract the discrepancies which are sent over for "further research" and ticketing ?
 

emsgeorge

New Member
Jul 6, 2010
3
You got it.


Basically, the software 'time stamps' the plate as it enters, via the entrance anpr camera. Captures both the plate image, and an overview image from a colour camera (showing the entire car, or sometimes from 2 cameras, one overview showing the car, one zoomed into the front windscreen).


When the vehicle leaves, again, the plate is read, time stamped. If the retail park / mall etc has a time limit, (say, 2 hours), then the system automatically outputs the info to a ticketing database.


The information from that database (along with the photos etc) are usually handed over to a parking company, who apply for the driver details from the dvla.


Usually the retail park has no access to the data, all the 'offending' vehicles data is sent over a broadband link to the parking company. All the retail park can do is add staff plates to the system, to avoid them being sent a ticket.


These systems are usually paid for by the parking company, with a 'kickback' to the retail park for every paid ticket. Saves the retail park from having to employ parking wardens.


A few malls have had the systems installed for crime prevention purposes - again, they have no access to the police databases, but they compile their own known shoplifter vehicles, people who cause problems, handbag thieves etc, and put their registrations onto their database. It gives them a 'heads up' of potential trouble, before it even parks its car, and means that they can pick the suspects up on camera, and follow them around the entire mall, to see what they are up to.


One example - a set of jewellery thieves went into a mall, robbed the jewellers at gunpoint, and left in a stolen vehicle. (They barged through the barriers).


Unfortionately for the robbers, they used the same stolen car 3 days earlier to 'case' the complex. One 5 second look on the anpr system brought up the exact time they entered the car park, along with their nice, uncovered faces !.
 

irsa76

Member
May 24, 2010
342
Australia, NSW
Some Australian states have adopted the system. The most active that I know of is the Canberra police. They have an entire team called RAPID with the cameras on marked traffic units plus a couple of unmarked cars.
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
emsgeorge said:
You got it.




A few malls have had the systems installed for crime prevention purposes - again, they have no access to the police databases, but they compile their own known shoplifter vehicles, people who cause problems, handbag thieves etc, and put their registrations onto their database. It gives them a 'heads up' of potential trouble, before it even parks its car, and means that they can pick the suspects up on camera, and follow them around the entire mall, to see what they are up to.


One example - a set of jewellery thieves went into a mall, robbed the jewellers at gunpoint, and left in a stolen vehicle. (They barged through the barriers).


Unfortionately for the robbers, they used the same stolen car 3 days earlier to 'case' the complex. One 5 second look on the anpr system brought up the exact time they entered the car park, along with their nice, uncovered faces !.

The Royal Exchange one, isn't it?
 

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