Windsor lawyer says OPP licence plate cameras may be a 'tax grab'
Frances Willick, The Windsor Star
WINDSOR, Ont. — Ontario Provincial Police will soon be cruising the province's roads with sophisticated equipment that can automatically scan up to 7,000 licence plates per hour.
The Automatic Licence Plate Recognition system will be used to identify plates associated with stolen vehicles, plates that are reported missing, suspended or unissued or those with expired validation tags.
A handout photo of the OPP's new Automatic Licence Plate Recognition System.
Photograph by: Handout, OPP
The system uses infrared cameras that can capture the plate numbers of vehicles approaching the cruiser from behind or from oncoming lanes. The number is then automatically run through a "hotlist" provided by the Canadian Police Information Centre database and a Ministry of Transportation database. That list is updated daily to reflect plates that are in poor standing.
If the scanned plate number registers a "hit" in the database, the system gives an audible signal to the officer, who can then identify the vehicle on the road and take action.
"This state-of-the-art recognition technology will help the OPP cast a wider net to identify stolen vehicles or those driving with invalid licence plates," said Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci. "This is a fine example of the OPP using innovative technology to help keep us all safer."
But Windsor lawyer Brian Ducharme isn't convinced that's the OPP's sole intention. "All of this may very well end up being a way to increase revenues -- a tax grab, if you will."
The ALPR system could also increase revenues for insurance companies, which might use the information to charge higher premiums, Ducharme suggested.
Ducharme also questioned the reliability of the equipment. "The technology that they use and the product that they use may not be state-of-the-art," he said. "Technology can be so unreliable. I fear that it may result in some wrongful convictions of drivers on the road."
The system will initially be installed in three fully marked OPP vehicles deployed to the Toronto area, Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario.
The cameras have the ability to scan licence plates that enter their field of view, whether the vehicle is moving, parked or travelling at a high rate of speed. Though they can scan up to 7,000 plates per hour in optimal conditions, the OPP anticipates the cameras will scan 2,000 to 3,000 plates per hour on average.
There are an estimated five to seven million Ontario plates in poor standing.
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