Cape Town traffic authorities’ Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) devices have proved highly valuable in tackling crime in the metro.
The city first introduced these scanners back in November 2022 as part of the rollout of a new 24/7 Highway Patrol Unit to assist in capturing evidence and enhancing situational awareness.
Initially only installed on the highway patrol vehicles, the ANPR devices later became standard issue for the city’s traffic law enforcement agencies.
“We’ve already seen the game-changing ability of the ANPR dashcams piloted in our new Highway Patrol Unit launched last year,” said Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis during a demonstration of the new technologies in Goodwood on Wednesday, 30 August 2023.
“Based on these learnings, we’re now rolling out cutting-edge in-vehicle cameras across our vehicles.”
Since then, the ANPR cameras have helped Cape Town coppers track down wanted criminals with tremendous success.
Anarchy meets ANPR
Within the first year on the roads, Cape Town’s Highway Patrol Unit recorded some 106,000 offences, many of which were contributed to the ANPR technologies.
Out of these incidents, the authorities discontinued 799 vehicles, impounded 939 vehicles and 1,922 cellphones, and actioned 1,023 arrests.
Over the weekend of 5 November 2022, a traffic officer was on duty at a broken-down vehicle on the N7 when the ANPR dash cameras alerted him that a vehicle passing by was stolen.
He pursued the car and stopped it near Dunoon, where the adult female driver was arrested for being in possession of a stolen motor vehicle and detained at Milnerton police station.
On 25 November 2022, while driving to Athlone police station to process a drunk driving arrest, Highway Patrol officers stopped a red Toyota Conquest along Klipfontein Road after it was flagged as stolen by the officers’ onboard ANPR system.
Four suspects were subsequently arrested and detained at Athlone Police Station.
On 29 December 2022, Highway Patrol officers detected a white Toyota Yaris fitted with false plates using the ANPR system. They pulled over the vehicle and soon noticed it had been hijacked on Christmas Day.
The occupants, aged 33, 38, and 45, were found in possession of computers, numerous cellphones, a number of vehicle keys and remotes, as well as an array of vehicle number plates.
They were charged with hijacking, kidnapping, the possession of a stolen vehicle, and displaying false number plates, along with several traffic offences.
In a 2023 incident, a taxi driver refused to stop, drove in a reckless manner, and managed to get away.
However, officers were able to identify the vehicle thanks to the ANPR’s captured footage, and impounded the vehicle the next day.
In one of the latest busts, which took place on Sunday, 17 November 2024, an officer driving in Bellville received an alert on the tablet in his vehicle after the ANPR camera read the licence plate on a bakkie in front of him.
It showed that the motorist had 262 fines and 114 warrants to his name, and owed the city a whopping R209,200.
The 34-year-old suspect was taken into custody and appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court later that week.
“We’ve highlighted multiple arrests in recent months, where scofflaws have been tracked down, either by our specialist tracing team or via the ANPR technology,” said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
“This system is improving efficiency by allowing our officers to focus on the right vehicles, which means it is becoming increasingly more difficult to hide.”
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