By Greg Nikkel
More automated licence plate readers (ALPR) will be provided to police forces in Saskatchewan by SGI after a successful pilot of their use, including by the Weyburn Police Service, one of the first in the province to try the devices out.
SGI initially bought 13 of the devices, and Weyburn has been using it for the last year and a half, leading the province’s auto insurer to invest about $1.3 million more to provide an additional 32 devices to police forces across the province, to bring the total number to 47 by the spring of 2017.
Const. Kalin Wiebe of the Weyburn Police Service was one of the first users of the system when it was brand new, and he provided a demonstration of its use to a reporter while on patrol on Thursday around the city, explaining how this device has been a great tool for the police to use while doing traffic enforcement duty.
“It’s taking the distraction away me by automatically reading plates. It does the check for me while I am watching for other Traffic Act violations,” said Const. Wiebe. “It’s an additional tool for us that also takes away a distraction.”
He is an active member of the Combined Traffic Services unit with the RCMP, and pointed out the on-board computer he uses in his cruiser with the ALPR reader actually belongs to the RCMP. His cruiser is the only one with the city police force to have this computer and ALPR system in it.
The ALPR system uses rooftop cameras on the police cruiser along with an on-board computer, and as the camera automatically reads licence plate numbers, they are checked by the computer for any issues that require an officer to check up on.
On Const. Wiebe’s cruiser, there are two cameras which are aimed to either side of the cruiser, so as he makes a patrol down a highway, city street or neighbourhood, the camera automatically reads any licence plates that it sees, although not the plate on a vehicle in front of him. Const. Wiebe said he can manually input a licence plate number if he needs to check it out, and at times, if snow or mud obscures the licence plate number, he can input a correction on the number to run a check on it.
“The cameras are not affected by the speed, but it can be affected by visibility, such as being partially covered by snow,” said Const. Wiebe.
Plates that trigger an alert include those for unregistered vehicles, expired plates, and those on stolen vehicles, or where a driver has been suspended or is wanted on a warrant on another matter.
Const. Wiebe said the computer gets updates every morning, so the checkup on the status of a licence or vehicle registration is mostly up-to-date. As a backup, he always double-checks through dispatch to ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date, and if the data confirms that there is a problem, such as expired plates or registration, he will then do the personal check with the driver, and if warranted, will issue a ticket.
During the demonstration, a licence plate on a pickup truck triggered an alert, and pulling the driver over, found that the plates had expired back in August 2016. After double-checking everything with dispatch and through SGI, a ticket was issued to the driver, with the computer printing out the ticket with all relevant information on it with an on-board printer in the cruiser.
For driving an unregistered motor vehicle, the fine is $580, while for offences like impaired driving, the licence is suspended immediately.
Also, when he stops an unregistered vehicle, if he doesn’t issue a warning (such as for a registration that has just expired), it cannot be moved until the driver renews the registration on it.
For drivers whose licence is suspended, such as for impaired driving, “if they continue to drive, they are posing a high risk to other motorists, because they shouldn’t be driving,” said Const. Wiebe.
“I’ve found from the initial rollout of the device to now, we’re not getting as many unregistered vehicles as we were. I think people are more cognizant of the importance of having their vehicle registered,” he added, pointing out that should a driver get in an accident with an unregistered vehicle, that driver will be financially responsible for all costs, as insurance will not cover it in that event.
