Number Plates Designer Home Page

13/9/09

Durban in South Africs is introducing a new CCTV system that is going to give it's most wanted traffic offenders and hijackers driving stolen vehicles a "nasty Christmas present" this year. The CCTV number-plate recognition system will trace all details of the car in one second and alert the police.

Durban will be the testing ground for this sophisticated new system and will be linked to various other traffic law enforcement agencies.

Starting in Durban in December, the system will be introduced to the rest of KwaZulu-Natal with other SA provinces will follow later.

"Criminals and serious traffic offenders are going to be stopped in their tracks and police will nab them", said Durban Metro Police CCTV control room manager, Ruban Naidoo.

"We are testing the system and if everything goes well then it should be introduced by the end of the year. The introduction of 'smart road blocks' will mean that police officers will single out 'wanted vehicles' after being alerted by CCTV control room members who will give them the exact whereabouts of these vehicles."

Staff at the Durban Metro Police CCTV control room at Jelf Taylor Crescent will man the new system which will be linked to over 250 cameras throughout Durban, having links to the SAPS, Metro Police, emergency services and crime intelligence.

"The new type of automated number-plate recognition system is linked to our existing CCTV camera system. It identifies number plates and checks these plates against different law enforcement agencies' databases as well as the eNatis database to check if the vehicle is stolen or is wanted in connection with any crimes," said Naidoo. "It takes one second to check the different databases. It will also be linked to the Metro Police fines system to check if vehicles have outstanding warrants. This would be used for 'smart roadblocks'."

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