Electronic Eye Finds Stolen Vehicles and Missing People
A newly introduced technology that automatically scans the licence plates of vehicles passing police scout cars has been crucial to finding stolen vehicles as well as missing people.
“The system is an unblinking electronic eye on the road, scanning every licence plate that drives by police cars,” said Detective Sergeant Jeff Bassingthwaite of the Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) system that is now installed on almost all frontline police patrol vehicles that will alert officers to offences tied to licence plates.
Officers in 31 Division got an ALPR alert that a Lamborghini they has passed on the street had been carjacked that month. They followed the vehicle to a nearby parking lot and kept eyes on it only too see another vehicle wanted in a carjacking, a BMW X5 pull up.
Officers were able to make arrests and recovered three handguns and $18,000 in cash. The stolen vehicles were valued at $575,000.
The ALPR system, approved by the Toronto Police Service Board in July 2023, is used by police services across the province.
This technology notifies officers as they travel the streets of Toronto when a vehicle on a hot list passes in front of the forward facing camera, whether it be in relation to a Highway Traffic Act offence, criminal investigation, public safety alerts or Amber Alert.
On a recent day, over 1.25 million licence plates were read and over 100 hits were captured.
Officers must use discretion on whether to act on a hit, having to balance the call for service they are currently engaged on.
So far, at least eight missing people have been found through the system.
In one case, a senior, who was suffering from memory loss and other cognitive issues, was reported missing a day after being last seen by family members in the Fall of last year.
Missing Person Co-ordinator Valentina Monreal-Zakhour contacted the Toronto and Ontario Provincial Police Operations Centres to publish the missing person’s vehicle on ALPR.
A Traffic Services officer pulled the man over when he saw the notification flash across his mobile computer. The senior was in good health, although he had been up driving all night.
The man was located 25.44 km from his Scarborough residence.
Had it not been for the ALPR system, it is unknown how long the investigation would have lasted and the amount of resources that would have been required to employ.
Because of his age and vulnerability, the case would have been escalated to a Level One search if he was not located quickly and would be first focused around his home.
Homicide and Missing Persons Unit Crime Analyst Jordan Dunkley said missing persons cases are some of the most resource intensive investigations in policing.
“Having a system like ALPR being able to passively search for our missing people if they are known to travel in a vehicle is a huge burden off of our frontline officers who would typically have to manually punch information into the system to see that someone’s vehicle is flagged and attached to a missing person investigation,” she said. “Once the roll out is complete, it is anticipated that ALPR will save the Service both time and money in missing person investigations involving vehicles. And most importantly, it will help locate missing people faster and reduce the chance of harm.”
Detective Sergeant Jeff Bassingthwaite of Analytics and Innovation, who is the ALPR Capability Lead, said “the system is an unblinking electronic eye on the road, scanning every licence plate that drives by police cars.”
It is directly integrated into the new in-car camera system.
“The cars have a regular camera that records and there is a second camera built into the system that reads licence plates as the cars are moving around or stationary,” Bassingthwaite noted.
This system has the capacity to read and capture plates of vehicles travelling at 225 km/hr.
The field of view for the camera is 160 degrees and the detection range is about 50 feet in front of the camera.
Over 550 police vehicles have the ALPR system, which can translate to well over 1.25 million plates scanned every 24 hours.
The system has rolled out in stages, first leveraged for Amber Alerts and Missing Persons investigations. However, it will now alert officers to stolen vehicles and plates associated to people wanted for offences ranging from assault to murder.
Bassingthwaite said the system has potentially already and will continue to save lives.
“When we have an Amber Alert or Level 1 missing person search, the dispatcher broadcasts the information out at regular intervals. The ALPR system can be that secondary set of eyes immediately for officers once the plate is entered on the system.”
The system uses information inputted by TPS members as well as a ‘hotlist’ of vehicles from the Ministry of Transportation that is uploaded daily. This list will contain records related to stolen vehicles, suspended and unlicensed drivers and wanted parties associated to a licence plate.
“Officers will be notified when they get a hit on a plate for wanted parties, carjackings and hold-ups if it has been entered onto ALPR” said Bassingthwaite. “Once the information is entered in the system, it will be pushed out to every equipped car in the fleet.”
“Our Telecom and Information Technology teams are doing an amazing job helping to implement the system and they should be commended,” said Bassingthwaite.
Traffic Services Superintendent Jacqueline Baus is the ALPR senior officer sponsor and is confident that ALPR will be an incredible tool for frontline and investigative members.
“ALPR will support road safety while enhancing frontline efficiency,” Baus said. “An increase in detection rates of vehicle plates will assist Highway Traffic Act-related investigations while also providing TPS investigators an opportunity to leverage hotlists for ongoing investigations."
Visit the Automatic Licence Plate Recognition webpage to learn more.