A number of provincial police detachments in Northwestern Ontario now have upgraded technology in their patrol vehicles.
The Kenora, Dryden, and Greenstone detachments of the Ontario Provincial Police recently announced they have upgraded their patrol vehicles with automated licence plate recognition (ALPR) and in-car cameras.
Provincial Const. Mike Barclay, an officer with the Kenora detachment, said that upgrades are to grant an extra level of community and police safety while officers are out on patrol.
“As we are driving down the road, it is constantly reading plates and advising if the vehicle is registered, if it’s expired, if the driver is suspended, if the car is stolen, it’s a system that constantly working and updating as we are going,” said Barclay.
Although the in-camera system is constantly scanning the environment looking for infractions, the system doesn’t start saving the recording until the officer activates it.
"It’s always recording 30 seconds prior, so if the lights activate it’s already recorded 30 seconds,” he said.
Barclay said officers can start recording footage manually through their vehicle’s internal console, but the vehicle activates the recording automatically once the patrol car reaches a certain speed, the officer turns on their emergency lights or the vehicle is involved in a collision.
“The system is there for our safety, as well as, recording any evidence regard to situations,” Barclay said.
The footage is uploaded to a database, where it is stored in a cloud. Police can then use the footage in their investigations into missing people, stolen vehicles, stolen or unattached license plates, suspended and prohibited drivers and other situations like amber alerts.
Barclay added that the in-camera system also creates a level of transparency between police and the public. Currently, the regional OPP does have body cameras.
“It’s showing what we do. It’s showing the work that the police do,” Barclay said.
Barclay said that since the system was activated on Feb. 13, the OPP have noticed an uptake in licence plate infractions.
“We want to remind the public that even though registration is free, [license plates] still need to be renewed,” Barclay said.
