One third of Garda cars have licence plate recognition facility

Just under one third of Garda traffic corps vehicles are fitted with automatic licence plate recognition technology, it has emerged.

There are 289 vehicles "assigned for use" by the traffic corps, according to Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald. There are 103 official Garda vehicles fitted with the technology of which 91 are in the Traffic Corps.

The technology can automatically identify vehicle owners from their licence plates and allows gardaí to do this directly.

Ms Fitzgerald told Independent TD Tommy Broughan in a written reply to a parliamentary question that she had been informed that the technology "is in use in all Garda divisions and districts nationwide and that the use of this technology is kept under constant review by Garda management".

Mr Broughan said that in comparison with the North, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) “seems to have that technology available across the service for a long time and we don’t seem to have the same invigilation”.

The Dublin Bay North TD said the Traffic Corps was now down to under 700 gardaí and figures for those killed in road collisions was already higher than last year.

A total of 162 people died on Irish roads last year and this year there have already been 163 fatalities, Mr Broughan said, 33 more than at the same time last year.

The Tánaiste stressed that decisions on the provision and allocation of resources was a matter for the Garda Commission and she had no direct role in the matter.

But she pointed to the five-year Garda strategy that runs until 2021 - the Garda Síochána Modernisation and Renewal Programme - which aims to make greater use of licence plate recognition technology.

Ms Fitzgerald said the programme aimed to expand the number of units with the technology and “all units being 3G-enabled to give gardaí real-time information on suspect vehicles”.

The strategy also “envisages that An Garda Síochána will examine the introduction of fixed ANPR (Automatic Name Plate Recognition) sites at strategic locations across the road network” as well as the patrolling units.