Industry Workshop on ANPR Technology a First for SA
Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) successfully facilitated the first industry workshop on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) in March this year.
Representatives from the SAPS, system users, technical developers, service providers and industry associations participated in the workshop with the aim of determining a way forward to ultimately make South Africa a safer place, and to determine the feasibility of creating a cost effective and non-commercial solution to leverage the enormous amount of available information.
The value of vehicles stolen and hijacked every year in South Africa adds up to R13 billion. More than 20,000 vehicles re-enter the market illegally as a clone of a legitimate vehicle while others are used for their parts. Many of the vehicles are used in crimes but the majority are sold on to unsuspecting consumers.
The Johannesburg Metro Police Department first implemented ANPR on a large scale in South Africa followed by the private sector whose main objective was to protect themselves against vehicle-based crime. This combined wealth of information creates a unique environment for a public – private partnership in the ANPR industry.
BACSA’s objective, in collaboration with Business Leadership SA, is to help facilitate partnerships and collaboration with the private industry role players and Government such as the SAPS. One of the areas of focus is to clarify and support issues regarding ethics and standards in the use of technology.
Read more on this workshop. Alternatively for more information or to take part in this initiative, please see www.bac.org.za or send an email to info@bac.org.za