In the 1990s, there were widespread doubts about the ability of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems to read number plates accurately. However, in the past few years enhancements made to the technology by manufacturers, coupled with a reduction in price, mean that ANPR is at last set to ‘come of age’ as a method for controlling secure vehicle access to sites.
Nowhere is this more evident than at UK airports, a number of whose management teams have introduced – or are about to introduce – ANPR technology in their car parks in an attempt to tighten vehicular access.
It’s easy to see why they’re doing so. ANPR can help car park operators crack down on lost ticket and ticket swapping fraud – crimes which can hit airport car parks very hard indeed.
There’s also a need to guard against terrorism. Just days after September 11, a rental car believed to have been used by some of the hijackers was found abandoned at Boston Logan Airport (from where two of the aeroplanes used in the terrorist attacks took off). The discovery highlighted the need for airport officials to tighten security provisions and gather as much information as possible on vehicles left in airport parking areas.
Some UK airports had introduced ANPR at their car parks prior to last September. The British Airports Authority (BAA) has implemented a new number plate recognition system at Gatwick’s North Terminal Long Stay (Flight Path) Car Park, and is shortly to introduce ANPR at Heathrow and Glasgow Airports. BAA states that it has introduced an ANPR system primarily to offer increased security for customers’ vehicles, but also to improve and speed up customer service.
At Gatwick Airport, the ANPR system works as soon as a given driver reaches the entrance to the car park (see photographs opposite). An induction loop or photoelectric barrier signals an approaching vehicle. The camera takes an actual image which records the car registration details while the time and date information is all encrypted on to the magnetic strip of the entry ticket, ensuring that the ticket is allocated to the specific vehicle.
When a vehicle exits the car park – which is run by National Car Parks (NCP) – the ANPR system automatically cross-checks the registration plate with the rest of the information to prevent ‘swapping’ car theft. When a mismatch is detected, an alarm alerts the operator who will then inspect the images and the data to assess whether or not a fraud is taking place. The barrier will not rise for the driver to exit the car park until the operator gives some form of authorisation.
Jon Hillier, sales manager at I-to-I (the Hamburg-based supplier which has provided Gatwick and Birmingham International Airports with ANPR systems), explained: “The system can check to see if the ticket belongs to your car, so if you were to swap tickets with me, for example, the ticket would not match and the barrier wouldn’t raise itself.” Simple enough.
Benefits of pre-booking
ANPR can provide spin-off benefits to security, as demonstrated by the BAA at Gatwick. The technology enables users of the Gatwick car park with ANPR to save time and money by pre-booking their parking ticket through BAA Advance – via a Call Centre or over the Internet.
The ANPR technology means that drivers no longer need to stop at a payment machine as they are simply recognised on arrival and have already been allocated ‘paid time’. BAA adds that this process also does away with the need for vouchers and ticket validation, again making the whole parking process easier and faster. Lost tickets don’t pose a problem either, as the operator can use the system to assess the exact time and date of parking.
I-to-I’s Jon Hillier expands on the benefits both businesses and local authorities might realise by using ANPR for the pre-booking of car park spaces. “The beauty of it is that the car park operator doesn’t have to send out any booking vouchers,” said Hillier. He added that airport car park users in particular would benefit from being able to pre-book parking spaces in this way. “At the moment,” said Hillier, “you have to queue to get off the aeroplane and then queue up to get out of the car park, which is the last thing you need after a long flight.”
Hillier is also a great believer that using an ANPR system to allow the pre-booking of parking spaces over the Internet can also reduce business’ level of administration work quite considerably.
BAA has certainly been impressed with ANPR, claiming that the technology has proven to be a major success at Gatwick Airport. “The recent introduction of number plate recognition has been highly successful, both from a customer and operational perspective,” said Ronnie Waddell (travel services director at BAA). “The new technology has been particularly well received by our customers, who are clearly appreciating the speed and ease of operation offered by the system” – which is also being used to control staff vehicle and shuttle bus access to the site.
As at Gatwick, the management team responsible for Birmingham International Airport is using ANPR primarily to help prevent the theft of vehicles from one of its airport car parks. In this case the introduction of ANPR came about after the management team at the airport – which is owned and independently run by Birmingham International Airport (BIA) Ltd – decided to revamp its entire car park management system in late 2000.
The new Car Park 3, which cost GB pound 10.2 million to construct, is an eight-storey building that can accommodate 1,764 vehicles. ANPR has been in use at the car park for the past year or so, working along very similar lines to the system installed at Gatwick and deploying pretty much the same technology.
APT SkiData upgraded the barriers and ticket machines for NCP, I-to-I supplied the ANPR technology and Plettac Security (UK) provided its FAC838 cameras to capture images of vehicle number plates.
ANPR may also be used to help spot known criminals by identifying the vehicles they drive. A stolen vehicle – or one belonging to a drug dealer that the police are looking for, for instance – can be blacklisted on the ANPR database so that as soon as the vehicle enters a car park or site the CCTV operators are alerted. The operator can then follow the suspect or known criminal on CCTV and call security officers to either keep an eye on the intruder or contact the police.
“In practice, the CCTV operator can request the police to go to the car park and arrest the individual concerned,” added I-to-I’s Jon Hillier. “This avoids the need for a potentially dangerous car chase on public roads as the police attempt to catch the suspect.”
Hillier states that ANPR may also be used to create a list of staff and contractors authorised to use a car park or enter a site. The system can be programmed to allow site users access only at certain times of the day. A contractor, for instance, might only be permitted access on the mornings on week days.
An ANPR system can also be used to assign multiple vehicles and registration numbers to one person’s name if they drive a variety of different vehicles on site.
Hillier is urging security system end users to adopt ANPR for as many different functions as possible – and not just security. “ANPR systems are not expensive, but then again they’re not that cheap either,” stated Hillier. “It follows that the more functions you can use them for, the greater the cost benefits.”
ANPR on a wider scale
It’s not just airport security management teams that have realised the benefits of ANPR when it comes to enhanced security. London Weekend Television (LWT) recently introduced the technology at its South Bank Studios’ underground car park. This has been secured by the installation of high-speed, bi-folding FastGates supplied by APT Controls, integrated with a dedicated ANPR system.
The gates open and close within 2.5 seconds, thereby preventing any tailgating and unauthorised entry by vehicles or pedestrians (but giving legitimate users fast and easy access). LWT’s security staff can control who enters the studios by placing ‘time profiles’ on the gates. For example, an employee may be allowed access only between the hours of 9.00 am and 5.00 pm. As the employee approaches the gates, the number plate is read and the two sets of information are compared. If their vehicle is verified, the employee may drive in.
Motorway service station management teams are also beginning to demonstrate that ANPR can be used to prevent drive-offs from petrol station forecourts. First Motorway Services has started using an ANPR system at its service station located at Junction 24 of the M5 motorway near Bridgewater to prevent motorists from driving off the forecourt without first paying for their petrol. A Panasonic FIT high resolution colour camera, installed by ADT, captures the number plates of all vehicles leaving the forecourt.
Part of the Haulage Code
The popularity of ANPR looks set to grow and grow. The Road Haulage Association (RHA) is considering recommending the use of ANPR as part of a secure lorry parking scheme that the Association is now busily creating. According to an RHA spokesperson, around 3,500 haulage vehicles were stolen in the UK last year alone, so the problem is a very real one.
Still in its draft stages, the scheme will pretty much mirror the existing Secured Car Parks initiative – which doesn’t require car park management teams to introduce ANPR technology.
However, Chris Rampling – head of the RHA’s security group – emphasised: “Some security issues surrounding lorry parking are different to those which concern car parking. When you’re talking about lorries, much greater control of what vehicles are entering and exiting a parking bay will be necessary.”
Which is precisely why the RHA will most likely stipulate that ANPR be used for haulage vehicle car parks.
