Kent Police awards Civica £220k number plate recognition contract
for the Dartford Crossing

10 November 2004, London ... Civica plc, one of the UK's most experienced providers of public sector consulting, software and services, has been awarded a £220,000 contract to equip the Dartford River Crossing with an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

The Dartford River Crossing is one of Europe's most heavily used toll crossings and complex traffic management systems. On average it carries 145,000 vehicles every day, and no other point on the UK's roads has such direct access to London.

As part of the five year framework agreement awarded to Civica by the Kent Police Authority, vehicles of note using the Dartford River Crossing will be detected and stopped using ANPR technology.

The new system will be able to cross reference the data against a variety of databases including the Police National Computer (PNC), Local Force Intelligence Systems and other related databases, for example the DVLA.

Information about the vehicle and the registered owner will appear on the police network in Maidstone where it is evaluated. If the information supplied via the ANPR system alerts officers to the presence of a 'vehicle of interest', it can be stopped to allow further investigation, for example stolen vehicles.

A spokesperson for Kent Police said, "Automatic Number Plate Recognition is an effective weapon in denying criminals access to Kent's roads. During trials last year one in eight cars recorded were illegal in some form and we know that using ANPR we can reduce this figure substantially, resulting in reduced crime and safer roads.''

Civica is working with the University of Kent and Vehicle Intelligence Ltd to implement an ANPR data centre, which will be linked to new systems installed in petrol stations, retail centres, hospitals and other commercial premises, resulting in reduced crime and safer roads.

"Intelligence-led policing is revolutionising how forces across the UK operate and Kent Police is driving this change. ANPR solutions allow more effective use of police resources, as well as dramatically assisting in the reduction of crime and the apprehending of offenders", said Dave Scotton, Enforcement technical director at Civica.

About Civica plc

The Civica group (www.civica.co.uk), which includes Radius, is one of the UK's most experienced providers of consulting, software systems and managed services to the public sector. The company has a 20-year history of supplying local government, police, healthcare, criminal justice and education organisations in the UK, Australia and the USA. UK customers include approximately 75 per cent of local authorities, 47 of the 53 police forces, more than 250 NHS Trusts and over 30 Local Education Authorities, while in Australia the group is one of the leading local government software suppliers. Civica Services Ltd is an approved prime contractor for software in the GCat government procurement catalogue. Overall the company employs approximately 550 people and has a recent track record of profits growth.


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