North Yorkshire Police’s ability to tackle cross-border crime received a boost as they make an additional £1m investment in car number plate recognition technology to target travelling criminals. At present, a quarter of all detected crimes in North Yorkshire are perpetrated by cross-border criminals, who take advantage of the region’s large geography and road network to prey on local communities.

As well as theft and rural crimes, cross-border criminals can be involved in a wide range of other offences, including child sexual exploitation.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is already used by many forces (including North Yorkshire) to identify criminals en route, and build intelligence on their movement patterns. However, the new investment will allow North Yorkshire Police to increase its coverage across the region, refine its intelligence team, and deploy officers proactively to disrupt criminals in their vehicles.

Chief Constable Dave Jones said: ”I am delighted with this decision to improve our capability in tackling cross-border crime. It is an area where we are already very successful, through initiatives like Operation Hawk, but this will take us to the next level. However, ANPR is just one piece of the jigsaw.
Even more important are the changes we are making across the service to reduce red-tape, bring in new ways of working, and generally improve the service we offer to the people of North Yorkshire.

These are challenging times for police services across the country, but through our Operational Policing Model we are doing everything we can to ensure that the police service is effective and efficient, and that officers spend their time where it really matters – out in the community keeping people safe.”

The decision is part of a wider programme of activity, called the Operational Policing Model (OPM).The OPM includes a series of initiatives to improve efficiency across the police service, target offenders more precisely, and bring swifter justice to victims of crime. Technology is a major feature of the programme, as part of an overall drive to reduce bureaucracy, so resources can be focused on frontline police out in the community.

MAV are proud to work with police forces across the world in providing the ANPR cameras that support the reduction in criminal activity. Technology is placing an increasingly important part in policing and provides further tools to ensure the safety and security of communities in many countries. To find out more about the use of ANPR within the police visit our law enforcement page or view our downloads.

Source: Harrogate Informer

Source

The Highways Agency has confirmed the Dart Charge payment system will launch on 30 November for the Dartford – Thurrock River Crossing. The last cash payments at the crossing will be taken at 10pm on Saturday 29 November.

The charge to use the crossing will become electronis from Sunday 30 November and the crossing will remain free from 10pm-6am and the HA said the Local Residents’ Discount Scheme will remain in place.The website where drivers can set-up their pre-pay account was also launched, and the HA has said it will contact existing Dart-Tag customers to explain how to transfer their accounts.

The Dart Charge system will use automatic number plate recognition technology (APNR) to pick up vehicle numbers plates and then administer a charge to that vehicle.Motorists can pay the Dart Charge from a pre-paid online account linked to their car’s number plate, or they can pay online, by phone, text or a Payzone shop after they have driven through the crossing.

The current 27-lane ‘payment plaza’ will be replaced by four lanes in each direction, while the approach to the tunnel will have extra lanes to identity and turn away prohibited vehicles from the tunnels. This will provide further security and allow police to identify cars involved in criminal activity thereby making the roads and surrounding areas a safer place.

“Dart Charge will help speed up journeys so it’s great news for the tens of thousands of drivers who use the Crossing every day and for the economy,” said Nigel Gray, HA project manager.

ANPR Cameras are more frequently being used to support an increase in efficiency and safety, MAV support such applications and you can find out more on our tolling solution page.

Source: Businesscar

OVER 200 vehicles have been stopped and two seized in an international crime deterrence operation tackling human trafficking, money laundering and fraud in Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire Constabulary and its Tri-Force partners from Wiltshire and Avon and Somerset Forces have achieved significant results in cracking down on the crimes that have a widespread negative effect. Working with international officers for Eastern Europe, Operation ‘Trivium 3’ was aimed at investigating people on suspicion of a range of offences as part of a five day campaign to tackle foreign criminals operating in this country.

In the Tri-Force area, some 280 people were spoken to and three were arrested.Almost 250 vehicles were stopped and two seized in the Tri-Force region during the joint operation, in which Gloucestershire Police among officers from across the country and Eastern Europe took part in.

The operation specifically targeted travelling criminals using the road network to avoid detection and transit around the country using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) checks on foreign-plated vehicles. The cameras can immediately tell police which cars were linked to criminality or uninsured, with Gloucestershire stopping nearly 20 vehicles as a result of ANPR ‘hits’.

The Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Forces’ efforts on the M4/M5 resulted in 202 offences being dealt with, £23,000 fines administered, 36 vehicles prohibited, and invaluable intelligence gained.British partner agencies that helped maximise results included the National Crime Agency, Home Office Immigration, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Gangmaster Licencing Agency and Driving Vehicle Licencing Agency.Gloucestershire Chief Constable Suzette Davenport, who is the national lead for roads policing, said the criminal activity had a damaging impact on communities and businesses that are targeted.

“We want to prevent the public from the misery they cause and build on the intelligence we already have,” she said.
“These criminal gangs must use our roads to carry out their illegal activity, so by targeting them in this way we are aiming to develop a robust system to tackle the issue in the future.”

Many of these criminals use the road network to travel from area to area in an attempt to avoid detection and there are an estimated 3,600 international Organised Crime Groups active in the EU.

Chief Inspector Yannis Georgiou of Tri-Force, said the operation had proved “enormously successful”.
“The operation proved that foreign nationals who commit crime in UK, and who use our road network to facilitate that criminality, are not untouchable – operations like this prove that borders are no barrier to justice,” he said.

“In the past we’ve arrested people for crimes ranging from motoring offences to human trafficking, money laundering, GBH and fraud, as well as motoring offences like driving with no insurance or licence.

“But I should stress that we were targeting criminals, not the communities these offenders hail from. There are thousands of law abiding residents here from Eastern Europe who have integrated well.”

Source: Gloucester Citizen

To celebrate the launch of their new website MAV recently held a competition for all site visitors which has now been won. The puzzle pieces, which were used to hide much of the camera which required identification, proved difficult for a number of entrants who thought it was one MAV’s Rapier range of ANPR cameras. In fact, the hidden camera was the new Sabre 12 surveillance camera which has recently been added to MAV’s product portfolio, offering further solutions to their wide range of partners throughout the world.

The winner of the competition was Mr Tiago Fonseca, a software developer at Vision Box, an international identity solutions provider. Mr Fonseca was delighted at being the first to identify the Sabre 12 correctly and was even happier at being able to choose the charity to whom the donation would be given. Mr Fonseca chose Fundação Benfica which is a Foundation that develops integrated projects emphasizing early intervention on exclusion factors. In these areas, the Foundation has the primary concern of preventing delinquency and promoting educational success of children and youngsters as crucial factors of social mobility. To find out more visit their website.

MAV would like to congratulate Mr Fonseca on winning the competition but more importantly hope that the donation made to Fundação Benfica will further support the work they do to help children navigate the difficulties that they face on a daily basis.

Innovation begins by unifying disciplines. Crucial to fostering truly innovative culture is knowledge-sharing. To isolate business units is to miss the opportunity to learn and include the experiences of each discipline. In a business, the takeaways of the management team aren’t so far removed from the knowledge the technology team needs to work better. Collaborate within your own organisation, share ideas and work as a single informed entity.

Adopt a culture of cross-functional collaboration. No organisation, and certainly no person within the organisation, operates in isolation. The idea of collaboration is based the on the premise that a higher number of minds increases the likelihood of more innovative solutions. Every employee, contractor, manager or leader has their individual bank of ideas and learnings, and the more an organisation promotes connecting these minds, the greater its business competency. As is often said, organisations don’t innovate, people do.

Innovation structures adopted by an organisation must be sustainable across time and space and allow people within the organisation to evolve within it. The structure will shape the products or services an organisation provides, so like business strategies that can be deliberate or emergent, it is important to strive to understand the reason for innovation.

To introduce innovation principles into the regular business flow, consider group power. Gather a group of employees and break them down into small teams. Discuss ideas that directly give insight into processes that impede efficiency. Pare down to the processes that are most disrupting and think of actionable alternatives.

Innovation is challenging. Introducing a new idea within an organisation and bringing it to the market requires courage. The biggest challenges lay within companies, causing some of the most creative ideas to be abandoned prematurely in the absence of encouragement. For companies to see their innovative ideas reach fruition, it is crucial to recognise the people that embody its ideas. It is necessary to share stories of people that push the limits. Since innovation is born through people, it is important to create a culture that rewards breakthrough ideas.

Source: Financial Express

The extraordinary number of foreign criminals hiding in Britain was dramatically revealed yesterday after police arrested more than 700 suspects travelling on our roads in just 48 hours.

As a row raged over a report which showed the £1billion-a-year failure of successive governments to guard Britain’s borders, police launched the biggest-ever blitz on overseas offenders, rounding up 1,687 suspects in two days.

Using number plate recognition technology to spot foreign-registered vehicles potentially associated with criminal activity, police stopped 2,304 cars, arresting 729 immigrants.

They include gangsters and thugs wanted in their own countries for crimes such as human trafficking, robbery, fraud, drug smuggling, assault and domestic abuse.

The automatic number plate recognition cameras also identified a 51-year-old Polish man in Smethwick, West Midlands, who is suspected of a £11,500 fraud. The week-long crackdown – involving 43 forces in England and Wales – has seen raids carried out targeting foreign criminals across the UK.

Source: Daily Mail