Technology Adds Muscle To Long Arm Of The Law

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday June 12, 2007

By ANDREW DRUMMOND

TECHNOLOGY is helping curb traffic crime in the Illawarra with cameras and computers detecting stolen and unregistered vehicles.

Wollongong highway patrol officers yesterday used an automatic number plate recognition instrument on Squires Way at Fairy Meadow where they detected two unregistered and two suspected stolen cars in less than 90 minutes.

They also nabbed one unlicensed and one disqualified driver in the same period.

"The core role of this technology really is to detect unregistered and uninsured and stolen vehicles," said Wollongong highway patrol sergeant Hans de Haan.

"In the morning we download the latest information about stolen or unregistered vehicles and that information is on a computer in our cars."

Vehicles of interest are stopped by officers positioned further down the road.

More detailed checks are carried out on the vehicle and its roadworthiness, and its occupants are questioned.

"When we check the number plate it also gives us any warnings on the registered owner of the vehicle, who may be unlicensed or suspended," Sgt de Haan said.

"One of the unregistered cars was a pretty recent model Pajero which was a company car and the driver's company had just forgotten to register it.

"With the stolen cars, one was stolen in 1992 and hadn't been reported as being found so was still outstanding on the database.

"The other one was a situation where the number plates had been stolen from a car and the same plates had been re-issued to another vehicle owner."

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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