The new police vehicles have registration plates with a road safety message. Photo: ACT Policing.
Police in the ACT will be better equipped to detect unregistered vehicles and speeding drivers with two new police cars replacing vehicles that have reached the end of their service life.
Officer in charge of road policing Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman said two new BMW X3M40i cars have been added to the fleet of road policing vehicles. The hi-tech vehicles include a multiple camera automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system connected to a real-time database.
The cameras can capture high-quality footage of vehicles and their registration plates, even those travelling in the opposite direction at highway speeds.
“The ANPR system provides more detailed information to the police officer than the previous version to assist with vehicle identification. The system also captures metadata such as GPS location, time and date to provide accurate evidence,” Det Insp Boorman said.
ACT Policing vehicles will have new cameras to detect unregistered and speeding drivers.
The cameras enable police to identify and process plates on vehicles in front, beside, behind and approaching traffic from the opposite direction.
The high definition video cameras in the vehicles record all traffic stops which can then be used as evidence in court if there is a dispute to the infringements issued.
If required, officers can rewind video playback on the screen in their car to review footage.
To help spread the road safety message, police have also unveiled new registration plates for police vehicles including SPDKILS, RDSAFETY, BUCKLUP, ONPATROL, PATROLN and Y SPEED.
“These plates are an engaging way to remind people of the importance of being safe on our roads,” Det Insp Boorman said.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services Mick Gentleman said the government is committed to funding the equipment and training police need to keep Canberra safe.
“ACT Policing is a leader in the application of number plate recognition technology. The ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to use RAPID (Recognition and Analysis of Plates Identified) and ACT Policing continues to be an innovator.
“Being able to detect unregistered cars and drivers more quickly makes Canberra’s roads safer. Drivers will spend less time waiting at random breath testing sites, which means police will be able to test more drivers,” Mr Gentleman said.
The unveiling of the vehicles by ACT Policing comes after a weekend when several Canberra drivers were caught committing multiple driving offences.
On Sunday (15 November) police detected a 50-year-old man travelling at 180 km/h in a 90 km/h zone on William Hovell Drive south of Belconnen.
Earlier in the day, police also detected a 23-year-old man travelling at 168 km/h in a 100 km/h zone on the Monaro Highway.
Both drivers were fined $1841 and lost six demerit points.
Also on Sunday at about 9:20 pm, police were conducting proactive patrols of Canberra Avenue, Fyshwick when they observed a passenger standing up through the open sunroof of a silver Subaru Liberty.
The driver was issued two infringement notices, for driving with a passenger 16 years or older not wearing a seatbelt properly adjusted or fastened and driving a motor vehicle with a passenger body part outside the vehicle window or door. The driver was fined $705 and lost three demerit points.
The passenger was also issued fined $705 for their seatbelt not being fastened and for travelling with a body part outside the vehicle.
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