New ANPR cameras look set to be rolled out across Nottinghamshire as the police look to clamp down on crime.
£500,000 of funding was announced by Caroline Henry, the Police and Crime Commissioner, in her major crime plan for the next four years.
But what are ANPR cameras? And how do they have an impact on drivers in Nottinghamshire and the rest of the country?
ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition.
This means that, every time a vehicle passes a camera, it checks it in a database - helping police identify any vehicles of interest to them.
So, if a vehicle goes through the camera which may be linked to criminality, police can stop it and investigated further.
So, while every driver may go through the cameras, only those which police believe may be of interest to them will actually be affected by them.
Mrs Henry said she wanted to use the cameras to create a 'ring of steel' around Nottinghamshire.
So, by placing the cameras around Nottinghamshire's borders, they may be able to help with incidents such as county lines drug trafficking.
The Commissioner said in her Police and Crime Plan: "Provide £500,000 additional funding to expand the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, creating a ‘ring of steel’ around Nottinghamshire that will help to stop criminal use of the road network and improve our response to county lines drugs trafficking."
Fixed and mobile ANPR cameras are also planned to be used to combat rural crime - along with drones, thermal imaging goggles and off-road motorbikes.
It's not yet known the exact number of cameras which may be added - and their locations across the county.
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