ALPR – One Year Later

(WELLINGTON COUNTY, ON) – One year ago Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) acquired its own fully marked police cruiser equipped with an Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) system. ALPR is a sophisticated license plate scanning tool that uses Infra-Red illumination which captures an image of both the front and back of a vehicle. The system is capable of scanning thousands of plates per hour checking them in real time against the Ministry of Transportation database.

Officers received the specialized training and have operated the vehicle approximately 761 hours on County roads. “This specialized equipment has been a great addition to our community. Traffic Safety is a priority for the OPP and the ALPR cruiser has been able to detect and remove suspended and unlicensed drivers from our roadways. It has also led to many arrests and charges from officers looking beyond the plate and seizing drugs and impaired drivers”, says Detachment Commander Inspector Scott Lawson.

“We are very fortunate to have this piece of equipment patrolling Wellington County roads and we will continue to make full use of its capabilities.”

After one year of an ALPR cruiser in Wellington County;

761 hours of patrol

64 Suspended drivers

37 Unlicensed drivers

6 Prohibited drivers-Criminal Code

22 Impaired/over 80 mgs drivers

24 Drug charges

8 Criminal code charges

165 Highway Traffic Act offences

4 Warrants executed

335 Roadside Screening Device tests

67 Warn range suspensions

52 Insurance charges

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