New Technology Catches Crooks

New number plate recognition equipment, which has been made available over the last 18 months or so, has helped the Yorkshire police service to catch hundreds of known criminals, both in the immediate area and further afield.

One such incident involved a Vauxhall Astra which was travelling along the M64 with an unaccompanied and uninsured provisional driver behind the wheel.

Over the last year, Yorkshire police have arrested 272 people and dished out an impressive 734 court summons for similar offences. These impressive figures could not have been achieved without the dedicated efforts of the force and, of course, the new number plate recognition system.p>

Sergeant Ian Butler, commenting on the spectacular results, said, “The technology available to us means we can target specific vehicles, those drivers found without insurance are often involved in other criminal activity. Our aim is to disrupt travelling criminals' access to and from North Yorkshire. It is noticeable from our figures that out of the 272 people arrested, 208 where from out of the county.”

Many of the people who were stopped by the police are re-offenders. 15 of those stopped already had warrants on their heads and were arrested at the scene.

The new system is enabling police to catch these crooks for motoring offences, thus allowing more time to investigate crimes of a more serious nature.p>

So far, as a direct result of these arrests, the police have recovered drugs, money and stolen items totalling £753,272. This amazing figure clearly highlights the early success of the technology in place in and around the Yorkshire area.p>

Hopefully, the team in Yorkshire will build on this success and take more criminals and dangerous drivers of our roads.

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