scoobyvirgin

Whilst out last night (8.30pm) I came across a Police camera van that I'd never seen before. Just wondering if anyone can tell me what it was for.

It was a high roof Transit van with the back doors open, it looked like it had four camera's placed in two boxes mounted to the inside of the roof. Also a metal box was placed on the pavement with two policemen next to it.

I'm guessing at speed and tax evasion camera's.

Any idea's? Also no other Police around so they weren't stopping anyone.

yoza

Tax disc checkers I believe.

Put your tax disc in the top middle of the screen behind the rear view mirror, its not illegal but it plays havoc with the cameras. Which I have been told are trained to the lower left hand side of your screen.

Worth a try for annoyance value....

lmsbman

A complete waste of time. These are ANPR (Automatic Number Plate recognition) cameras. They do not read your tax disc. However, if you are stupid enough to try to hide it, the operator may radio up for you to be stopped to check. So who's being messed around?

doorman

i heard they were for catching people on mobile phones

yoza

Thats the end of that then....

As for hiding the tax disc, thats not what I said, its still displayed but in a 'none normal' position.

I was stupid enough to believe that the cameras were clocking the tax disc.

Poor Guy

in my GT6 and on my old mans Spitfire the tax disk is in top middle behind the mirror.

thats because the holder doesnt like sticking to the curved bit of the screen at the side

wazza2770

Nope you are all wrong. the van you saw was an ANPR van (Automatic number plate recognition (reader.

You will see these vans all over now they are really good crook and criminal and other offender catchers.

The camera reads your number plate and checks it against a number of data bases and in seconds tells whether your car is taxed insured or you are a possible disqualified driver or if the car is stolen or wanted for anything. Many many arrests occurr due to the presence of these vans. A short distance further up the road you would have seen the stopping team waiting to greet you.

Oh they cannot and do not register speed so speeding motorists are not the target. Unlawful drivers are.

scoobyvirgin

Wazza, That's near enough what I thought.
No stopping team up the road though. Maybe they were either just setting up or getting ready to leave.
What would the metal box on the pavement have been for though? It had wires attached so was hooked up to something.

lmsbman

Could it have been a generator? There's a lot of electrical gizmo's in these vans, including computers, TV monitors, kettle!!They need an external power supply.

scoobyvirgin

If I had known they had a ketle i'd have stopped for a cuppa!

The box wasn't very big though, suppose it could have been a generator as you say.

Scooby300

As far as I know the Police do not just check for out of date Tax Discs, these are normaly the DVLA Vans.

The Police ones will check the discs but they are there for speeding, Insurance and wanted vehicles.

I have seen a couple in the Derby Area with the speed camera and the numberplate readers to check for Tax / Insurance and any marked vehicles.

RUFocused

What are the implications if you get stopped with no tax nowdays,
thing is i bought a van on saturday and insured it straight away.

But i want to wait till next month to tax it, what is the earliest you can tax a vehicle before the end of the month. I really need to use this van this week so would you, or would you wait untill all legal.

Steve vRS

You'd think it would be easier to do this work at the DVLA with a cross reference to the car insurance companys databases.

Steve

lmsbman

For the last time, these are not speed checking vans or tax disc checking vans. They are ANPR. The camera reads the number plate and then checks various databases for any information. Yes, one of those databases is the DVLA list of vehicles with expired vehicle excise licence. Yes, the Police National Computer has information on whether a vehicle is insured or not. However, these vehicles still need stopping, to ascertain if the information is correct.
They are very useful for catching criminals, as believe it or not, criminals do use cars.
Now a local copper may know a few cars driven around his area that are worth a look out for, but these cameras can check every car in a fraction of a second. Unfortunately, criminals DO travel around the country and this is an easy way of keeping tabs on them. If your car is legal and you are not a criminal, then you have nothing to fear from them.

wazza2770

Ditto to the above. No one has anything to worry about with these van unless of course you are well dodgy and no docs and thats about it really. I have worked as part of an ANPR team for several months as a pursuit and stopping officer. Many people stop and enquire if it is a speed van and most go away feeling dumb when they find out it is not. The good thing is we get in cooperation with DVLA teams that join the check, many vehicles taken away and scrapped for no tax.Lots of Fraudulant display of tax discs and also many crims and disqual drivers banged up and even more stolen vehicles recovered with false id. So next time you are passing Smile you are OK...........................or r u ????????????

what would scooby do

Is it true that say you bought a car of a disqualified driver, that the car would have a "red flag" against it in one of the databases - making it more likely to be stopped ??

Also - on the way to GForce in Aylesbury - spotted a Police estate car with a large black device sticking out of the roof at the rear - not sure if this was just a CCTV or ANPR kit - any ideas anyone ?

wazza2770

Yes the car you saw was a Collission Investigators car. The thing you saw sticking out of the roof was infact a flood light. In the back of the car is a all of the investigators equipment including this extendable pole which is pumped up to a height of about 10 meters. On top of which a large floodlight is attached (Before raising the pole that is)

These lights used to be affixed to the Accident units (Traffic landrovers) but as they are now no longer used exept for one on the M25 / M40 (Amersham/ high wycombe area) the collission investigators carry thier own now.

Yes If you buy a car from a disqualified driver you may well be stopped until such time that the record can be ammended. Once you have been stopped the officers would submit an intelligence report and the marker would be removed.

Hope that explains all to you to your satisfaction.

[Edited by wazza2770 - 1/26/2004 11:24:25 AM]

yoza

So thats why they are so fussy about correctly spaced, and fonted number plates?

If the van reads a non DVLA friendly plate, what comes up on the screen?

I hope its one of these.....

LMAO.....Anyone whos seen my plate will know why Im laughing.

[Edited by yoza - 1/26/2004 11:31:19 AM]

homer lawtey

If there has been a break in the tax (I assume so otherwise you wouldn't be asking), then you can't tax it until the 1st of the month. If there is still tax on a vehicle, you can tax it up to 15 days before the end of the month AFAIK.

wazza2770

It is important to have correctly spaced number plates. However the van is not run by robots, real people monitor the camera's and what appears on the screen. Misreads do happen due to wrong spaced letters and additional screws, so the geezers inside double check dodgy ones and do a manual imput, if they cant then, yep the motor gets a tug and the driver a ticket for dodgy number plate at least.

As for taxing cars. you can tax a vehicle at anytime! you cant pay for a part of a month so you must pay for the whole month. If you only have one day to go then you must still pay for the whole month sods law I know. But that is the system. You can purchase tax upto 14 days before the expiry of your old one. Note; if your vehicle is not taxed and you apply upto 14 days before for it to start at the begining of the next month (If you can, most PO will not let you) You still will not be covered in the days leading upto the start of the next month.

I know it does not seem fair, but thats life eh....another money making venture by the government.

Oh yes and going back a little, the little box near the ANPR van is a generator as suggested. and sometimes when the weathers nice a BBQ will be found close by too.

speedking

Freudian slip wazza2770

wazza2770

Yea you are so quick. Speeding motorists are unlawful but are not the targets of an ANPR van that cannot detect speeders, does not mean that a man with a speed gun wont step out from behind the van and point it at you......!

Crapaud62

Surely a disqualified driver would not be stupid enough to be out driving their own car with the correct number plates on???

Presumably, with the introduction of these number recognition devices it will lead to more cloning of numbers? A crim would just need to find a similar model and colour of car that is owned by a nice law abiding citizen and copy the reg plates. Or am I missing something somewhere?

Superbike Magazine even gave away a false number plate letter to stick over your plate last month to avoid detection!!

I'm sure Wazza will explain it all to me

andypugh2000

getting number plates made is now bigger problem as they must see the V5 in order to make them, obviously there will still be rouge traders doing it

wos 69

plenty vans on a66 today

damian666

Rogue traders? Fancyplates! I'm sure most MOT men wont care bout the lack of BS on the plates.

Damian