Motorists are evading detection by speed cameras using so-called ‘ghost plates’ that can’t be captured by traditional enforcement tools. Authorities are clamping down on the covert operation which involves these unique plates that reflect light and obscure the registration from camera detection, rendering them illegitimate.
These ‘ghost plates’ come in the form of illegal 3D and 4D number plates. In response to the surge in their usage, police forces are arming themselves with advanced cameras capable of spotting these deceptive devices.
Last year, the head of the UK’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition system technology expressed concern as he flagged that about one in every fifteen motorists was circumventing the system in a manner he cited as ‘staggeringly simple. Professor Fraser Sampson, upon exiting his role as Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, penned a letter to Transport Secretary Mark Harper lamenting the lack of action being taken to curb this issue.
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Local authorities are now being equipped with novel cameras designed to ‘see’ these elusive plates. Wolverhampton is one locality where council officers have been provided these upgraded cameras as part of the intensified efforts.
Car owners found utilising these unlawful number plates can expect to receive a stiff £100 penalty.
Councillor Craig Collingswood, responsible for environment and climate change at Wolverhampton City Council, spoke to BirminghamLive about the initiative: “Wolverhampton is leading the way as the first council investing in this state-of-the-art technology to deter and detect offenders.”
In a stern warning, they stated: “Bus lanes are essential for the public transport network to operate efficiently and speed cameras help to keep the public safe from speeding vehicles and reduce the likelihood of a crash. All motorists can expect to pay a fine if found to be using these illegal methods to avoid cameras and taxi drivers licensed by Wolverhampton may have their licence suspended or revoked.”
In correspondence with Mark Harper, Professor Sampson revealed that scofflaws are evading fines by cloning number plates, using reflective tape, and purchasing ‘stealth plates’, allowing them to speed or sneak into low-emission zones undetected. He shared that despite technology being advanced, there is still only a 97% accuracy with number plate recognition – leading to approximately 2.4 million misreadings daily, which could result in faultless drivers being mistakenly ticketed.
Professor Sampson further elaborated on the scale of surveillance, mentioning that around 15,400 traffic lanes monitored by cameras create between 75 and 80 million number plate reads daily and sometimes exceeding 80 million, with predictions this could surge to 100 million reads every day by the conclusion of 2024.
Prof Sampson has highlighted a significant flaw in the ANPR system, despite its technological advancements and operational indispensability. He pointed out that the system’s reliance on physical number plates creates a vulnerability: “For all its technological advancement and operational indispensability, the ANPR system still relies ultimately on a piece of plastic affixed to either end of a vehicle. Served by a wholly unregulated market, what my predecessor termed the humble number plate represents a single and readily assailable point of failure with the ANPR network being easily defeated by the manufacture and sale of stealth plates, cloned registration marks and other rudimentary obscurant tactics.”
He further explained the simplicity of evading the system: “The result is that the ability to frustrate the ANPR system remains staggeringly simple at a time when proper reliance on it for key public services such as policing, law enforcement and traffic management is increasing daily. Emission zones and other strategic traffic enforcement schemes put motorists in situations where they have to make significant financial choices and it is at least arguable that the incentives for some to ‘game’ the ANPR systems have never been greater.”
Prof Sampson also mentioned how easy it is to obtain means to deceive the technology: “Merely by applying reflective tape to distort part of a registration plate or purchasing stealth plates from online vendors, motorists can confuse and confound current number plate recognition technology and both of these are easily obtainable. One recent estimate suggested that one in fifteen drivers may already be using anti-ANPR technology; it is reasonable to expect this conduct to increase as the reliance on ANPR for new traffic management schemes continues.”