Bad drivers put on notice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2012 (5285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A device not that much bigger than a deck of cards is showing city police just how many Manitobans flout the law and drive without a licence or in an unregistered vehicle.

Two weeks ago, Winnipeg police deployed two new automated licence-plate readers (ALPR) — the ALPR’s camera sits unrecognizable on two marked police cars — to do sweeps of traffic to see who shouldn’t be on the road.

The cameras give police three ALPRs — the first has been in use since 2008 and roams the city in an unmarked police car. The RCMP will put their two ALPRs on the road shortly, while the Brandon Police Service’s single ALPR is also coming soon.

“We can scan 2,000 to 3,000 plates in half a day and consistently one per cent of the vehicles we scan we’re stopping because they’re either driven by unlicenced drivers or their registration is expired or suspended,” Winnipeg Police Service Patrol Sgt. Lou Malo said Friday.

“We’re towing 20 to 30 vehicles a day off the road on just about any given day in any part of the city. About one per cent of everything on the road there’s something wrong.”

Until now, police have not been able to randomly sample vehicles on city streets for unlicenced or suspended drivers and unregistered vehicles. Before the ALPR, a police officer would manually input a vehicle’s licence plate into the patrol car’s computer and wait for a response. Working non-stop, that officer might be able to check about 100 vehicles in a day.

“They might get one or two suspended or unregistered or unlicenced vehicles off the road,” Malo said. “Now, with just parking on the side of the road for a couple of hours, we can get 20 or 30 of them.”

The ALPRs, funded by Manitoba Public Insurance, are intended to target high-risk motorists who deliberately drive while suspended or without a licence. They haven’t just forgotten to renew it, they’ve been prohibited from driving because of an impaired driving conviction or other offence.

Police say high-risk drivers make up only three per cent of Manitoba’s 770,000 licensed drivers, but are involved in 12 per cent of all fatal crashes.

Malo said one suspended driver who was stopped last week, and his vehicle impounded for at least a month. He had four prior impaired driving convictions.

“We’re getting the worst of the worst. They’re just saying, ‘To hell with the system, we’re going to drive anyway.’ “

RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said the RCMP’s two new ALPRs should be in use shortly.

“These can read and capture licence plates as quick as they pass the police vehicles regardless of oncoming or the police cruiser coming up on or getting passed by them,” she said. “It can span across three lanes. For example, coming into the Headingley strip it could read both oncoming lanes and the curb lane to the right of the police cruiser.”

As soon as the ALPR scans the plate, the information is instantly run through MPI’s database and the Canadian Police Information Centre. If there is a red flag, officers stop the vehicle to verify if the driver should be behind the wheel.

Winnipeg police Staff Sgt. Mark Hodgson said in 2011 police charged 376 people with suspended driving. Most of the tickets came from the single ALPR. The average fine for those offences was $438. In one case, a repeat offender saw his vehicle impounded for 330 days.

“That was 11 months that the car got to sit in jail because the guy had such a bad record,” Malo said.

MPI spokesman Brian Smiley said the Crown auto insurer is paying $150,000 for the five cameras as a new way to remove problem drivers from Manitoba’s streets and highways. A side benefit is the ALPRs also detect stolen vehicles and allow police to arrest people on outstanding warrants.

“It’s found these licence plate readers can be a very effective deterrent,” he said.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca