Top cop's plea to use Clean Air Zone cameras to catch crooks

A GREATER Manchester Police chief is calling for officers to be given full access to the network of cameras installed for enforcement of the Clean Air Zone.

- CHRIS SLATER

More than 400 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras were erected ahead of the planned implementation of the charging zone in May last year, which was then delayed and the future of which is still uncertain.

Police can access information and images from the cameras which has already provided evidence in five murder cases, six gun incidents, two stabbings and four fatal crashes among others. Officers currently need to request permission from Transport for Greater Manchester to get hold of the information.

This leads to bureaucracy and can cause delays to investigations, according to the CCTV & ANPR manager for GMP, Inspector Jon Middleton. He says he would like to see a situation where data from the cameras was fed directly into the police's systems.

A public consultation would be needed before any such move, but Insp Middleton said he believes there would be a 'consensus' amongst the law-abiding public for their use in helping to 'lock up criminals? "There's been investment in ANPR in GMP over the last 18 months," he told the M.E.N. as we spent a day on patrol with GMP's Roads Policing Taskforce, which uses ANPR data as well as information from the public to take 'high-risk' drivers and cloned vehicles off the road.

"But we still lag behind other forces.