Recognising trouble

Editorial and photography: Jesse Wray-McCann

When Senior Constable Uwe Stolzenberg’s highway patrol car alerted him to a suspended driver mere moments after hitting the road, he knew he had an incredible tool at his disposal.

Sen Const Stolzenberg was driving one of Fawkner Highway Patrol’s cars newlyfitted with mobile Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), a powerful new technology that scans vehicles on the road to detect suspended, disqualified and unlicensed drivers, as well as unregistered and stolen vehicles.

“We rolled out the gate of the police station car park and as soon as we turned left, the ANPR alert goes off with a suspended driver,” Sen Const Stolzenberg said.

“We had literally only travelled about 20 metres before it went off.

“He had no idea why we had pulled him over, but I explained the ANPR had picked him up as someone whose licence had been suspended for three months for speeding.

“I rang my boss for authorisation to impound his car and she asked, ‘Have you even left yet?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m only just around the corner’.

“It was unbelievable.”

Since it was launched in February this year, the mobile ANPR technology has so far been installed in 57 highway patrol cars across the state, and is due to be rolled out to the entire highway patrol fleet of 221 cars by March 2021.

The technology can check more than 5,000 number plates in a 10-hour shift, compared to a maximum of 300-400 through the previous system of police manually entering number plate details.

Combined with the system’s video recording capabilities, mobile ANPR has armed road police with some of the most effective detection and evidence-gathering technology to date.

Fawkner Highway Patrol’s Senior Constable Holli Coates said its impact had been “phenomenal”.

She said drivers flouting the law were destined to be caught.

“They just have no hope of avoiding us,” Sen Const Coates said.

“They are eventually going to go past us, the mobile ANPR will pick them up and we will take them off the road.”

Even the most persistent of law-breaking drivers cannot escape the eagle-eyed technology.

“I once gave the same bloke three unregistered vehicle tickets in one day because he just kept on driving and the ANPR just kept on picking him up,” Sen Const Coates said.

“By the third time, and after more than $2,400 in fines, he finally decided to get out of his car and walk.”

Road Policing Command's Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said the mobile ANPR technology was already an important tool in keeping Victorians safe on the road.

“It has meant our highway patrol officers can do what they do best, which is watching the road, watching the people on the side of the roads and identifying the most important people they need to intercept,” AC Leane said.

“Unauthorised drivers are involved in a significant number of serious collisions and we are determined to get them off our roads.”