Licence scanners a good step forward
Feb. 4, 2010
Considering the nature of the average car thief in Winnipeg, it’s going to be a long time before we can get rid of them – if ever. So it’s welcome news that the Winnipeg Police Service has a new tool to fight car thieves.
That tool is a device installed in an unmarked police cruiser that scans the licence plates of other cars. The scanner instantly reports when it spots a stolen car.
Police can then swoop in and arrest the thieves.
That’s a huge advantage over the old way of doing things, which requires officers to keep an eye out for stolen cars as they patrol city streets.
The new computerized system, called Automatic Licence Plate Recognition, frees officers of that chore and should be able to do it more efficiently.
Police say the average car thief is a teenage boy out for a thrill or trying to impress his peers. Many are repeat offenders, who don’t care how many people are hurt by their actions.
Last year, 6,515 vehicles were stolen in Winnipeg. That’s almost 18 cars taken every day of the year, despite the best efforts of police. And those efforts have been considerable.
The service has a dedicated auto theft unit of 14 officers, which works with MPI to monitor high-risk offenders.
Thanks to MPI and the auto manufacturers, more and more cars are equipped with immobilizers. But there are still many thousands of cars that are all too easy to steal.
Now it looks like technology has again come to the rescue.
The licence plate scanner is made by a U.K. company called Appian Technology. Other companies make similar devices.
To install it in a single cruiser and set up the system costs $48,000. If the first unit works well, police say they would like to install more.
Given the success of these systems across the U.S. and in the U.K., it seems certain that APLR will have an impact. But its effect will be limited because the scanner is currently in use in only one cruiser, which can’t be everywhere at once.
We’ll only gain the full benefit of the technology when at least one cruiser is on the road in each of the city’s six districts. The plague is citywide and needs a citywide response.
That will require a commitment from city hall to provide the extra funds. The first unit was purchased only after police lobbied council to top up their 2007 operating budget.
If the first licence plate scanner is a success – and there’s no reason to suppose it won’t be – police shouldn’t have to go cap in hand to council for funds to buy more of them.
Auto theft costs Manitobans more than $20 million a year. That doesn’t include the incalculable suffering of people hurt or killed by joyriding car thieves.
Until all cars are impossible to steal, police should be given every possible tool to combat the scourge.
