Civica clocks police force's number

Civica clocks police force's number


VAR works with Greater Manchester Police to help cut vehicle crime around Trafford Centre

Software and services VAR Civica is working with the Greater Manchester Police force (GMP) to stamp out vehicle crime around the Trafford Centre shopping complex.

Civica’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology has been integrated with the Trafford Centre’s existing CCTV platform and uses cameras to capture images of number plates of vehicles entering the area.

The VAR's software compares registrations with those held in the the GMP's database, and all its partners' records on vehicles linked with criminals offences.

When the ANPR identifies a match it alerts the police, its partners, the Trafford Centre and local retailer's security teams.

Mark Aspin, strategic development manager, at Safer Trafford Partnership GMP/Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council, said: “We chose Civica’s ANPR system after a competitive tender and because we were very impressed with similar work it had completed at other shopping centres.

We had a police target to decrease car crime by 30 per cent, so to have bettered the target by more than double is great news for the local community and people visiting the Trafford Centre. Civica’s ANPR system has also helped with other sorts of acquisitive crime such as shop lifting and credit card theft, as well as helping convict criminals for armed robbery offences,” said Aspin.

John Dutton, Enforcement Managing Director, Civica said: “Our ANPR system at Trafford Park demonstrates what is possible when a group of organisations get together to help reduce crime to benefit the people living or visiting the area.

Dutton added: “Civica’s technology delivers an intelligent approach to crime reduction which is flexible enough to work with existing technology systems. In addition, we can integrate with our other enforcement technologies to provide a complete tailored system.”