Essex County OPP cruisers now outfitted with new licence plate recognition system

Ottawa police say the Automatic Licence Plate Recognition system identified "hundreds" of vehicles with expired license plates last weekend. (Ian Urbach/CTV News Ottawa)

The Essex County OPP detachment now has Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) and in-car camera (ICC) systems installed in all of its patrol vehicles.

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is introducing the new systems to all its frontline vehicles at detachments across the province.

“This is an example of the OPP's commitment to increasing transparency and accountability in the policing of our communities, and to leverage technologies that will enhance community and officer safety,” a news release from Essex County OPP states. “These technologies will be used to gather enhanced evidence to be used in the prosecution of offences and will also highlight the professionalism our members display every day as they work to ensure safe communities.”

Police say the in addition to the benefits of having an objective video recoding of police interactions with the public, the integrated ALPR functionality will “dramatically” enhance an officer’s ability to detect licence plates that are linked with criminal or traffic offences.

The Essex County detachment continues to see drivers operating vehicles that don’t have valid, registered plates, police say. While vehicle owners do not need to pay for validation stickers, licence plates are still required to be renewed annually or bi-annually.