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Taking aim at number plate ­recognition

Hi-Tech Security Solutions’ readers were introduced to GateBook, a locally developed visitor management system last year in the Residential Estate Security Handbook. In the original article we noted that one of the GateBook modules is automated number plate recognition (ANPR), which residential or business estates can use to compare cars requesting entry with a hotlist of undesirables which should be denied access to the estate. Alternatively it can be used to simply keep a record of what vehicles entered and exited the estate and the associated driver’s licences that were scanned.

This is useful, but a limited use of ANPR and Grant Hancock, MD of GateBook, believes the process could be expanded to increase security levels on a far wider scale than an estate. He says traditional ANPR is reactionary and allows you to react after the event, not immediately. SNIPR is different.

GateBook’s ANPR system, SNIPR, is connected to the SAPS database of suspicious vehicles as well as many other sources. These sources can be existing databases of vehicles, live camera feeds, handheld devices and so forth. The system is already integrated into Hikvision LPR cameras.

Once a number plate is received by the SNIPR server, it is compared to the plates on file and on the SAPS database. If it turns out to be a suspicious vehicle, the security teams at estates (or shopping malls, business campuses or anywhere there is a constant flow of vehicles), can be prompted to take the relevant action.

The action in this instance is immediate. A vehicle with a number plate that raises an alarm can be prevented from entering an estate or business premises or, to avoid endangering innocent people, it can be allowed to enter until it is confronted by the police or a security team.

SNIPR can be used with different cameras and surveillance systems, it does not require users to buy special equipment. It can also be used with a management system (like GateBook) that provides step-by-step instructions on what process must be followed when a suspicious number plate is recognised.

Hancock explains that SNIPR is not competing with current ANPR systems as it does not read number plates, but the company has written an API that can interpret number plate information from third-party systems. Hancock says GateBook will write integrations to connect to any third-party systems willing to provide number plates to SNIPR.

The system does not record video footage either, only those images associated with the ANPR recognition, and these images are only stored for a short time.

SNIPR has been put through its paces in a number of pilot environments and is being rolled out to a growing number of organisations.

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