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OPP will use Automated Licence Plate Recognition system

March 3, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

If you are driving a vehicle with a suspended driver’s licence, your chances of being caught are going up.

The Nottawasaga OPP is currently in the process of installing and activating Automated Licence Plate Recognition and In-Car-Camera systems in all patrol vehicles.

The system is already in use at several detachments around the province and will be rolled out to all OPP detachments. It is also used by some other regional or local police services.

The system reads licence plates and automatically flags potential infractions as vehicles drive by. It can alert police of expired licences, vehicle registrations, and other offences without pulling over a driver to investigate.

During a recent demonstration of the system, the system flagged 32 vehicles in just 22 minutes while plates were being scanned on Highway 403.

It identified one suspended driver, four unlicensed drivers, and 27 expired vehicle registrations.

The system responds almost instantly with information through the Ministry of Transportation databases.

Police do not have to conduct a traffic stop to investigate; the system automatically alerts them of a problem with a vehicle or a driver.

Along with unregistered vehicles and expired licences, the system could detect plates that are linked to criminal activity or provincial offences, as well as wanted or missing people, stolen vehicles, or plates that do not belong on a certain vehicle.

The most common infraction is for licence plates that have not been renewed.

Although vehicle owners are no longer required to purchase licence plate stickers in Ontario, the plates are still required to be renewed annually or bi-annually to be valid.

Renewing and registering your plates is easily done online.

It is worth the effort to take a few minutes to renew your plates rather than being scanned and stopped for failing to do so.

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