Belgium Police Use IP License Plate Recognition Solution To Detect Stolen Vehicles

  • Dec 03, 2008

Genetec recently announced that the Anti-Aggression Brigade from the Brussels Police Department in Belgium has chosen AutoVu, Genetec’s IP license plate recognition solution, to facilitate the detection of stolen vehicles within the city.

The entire installation consists of six AutoVu Sharp cameras that can be interchangeably mounted on 10 police vehicles and that have been precabled and preconfigured for ease of portability and maximization of usage.

Brussels is the first region in Belgium to test the solution and thus far, the Anti-Aggression Brigade has experienced strong results. Although there has been a decrease in the theft of vehicles in Brussels over the last few years, the Brussels’ Anti-Aggression Brigade is finding more cars in their territory that were stolen outside their borders.

“During the first three weeks of having AutoVu on our police cars, we have been able to recover nine stolen vehicles,” said the Chief of the Anti-Aggression Brigade in Brussels. “We are amazed with the accuracy of the system and could not be happier with our investment.”

More than this, Brussels’ Anti-Aggression Brigade has enjoyed AutoVu’s easy-to-use and touch-enabled interface, which automatically alerts officers of stolen vehicles as the plate is scanned by the LPR camera.

Zenitel, an independent system integrator in Belgium, proposed the LPR solution to the Brussels Police Department. Prior to having the AutoVu LPR solution, officers from Brussels’ Anti-Aggression Brigade would memorize license plate numbers of wanted vehicles or compare license plates of suspicious vehicles to printed lists or a database on a palmtop.

This manual process of tracking stolen vehicles in the region was not only time consuming but imposed many limitations on officers who would try to cover a lot of ground and vehicles.

Currently, Brussels’ Anti-Aggression Brigade is solely using the AutoVu solution to automate the detection of stolen vehicles and disregards licence plate information outside of this objective. With the immense success they have already experienced, Brussels’ Anti-Brigade intends to purchase another four units and is looking at further expanding the application to include the detection of vehicles without car insurance.

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