Hello,

Can some of our American friend tell me what this is? Is it a speed trap or something else?

http://www.flitsservice.nl/cm_php/main_repo.php?id=4163

Greetz,
Garco

That is a license plate reader. Or sometimes its more formally called a license plate recognition system. Basically what it does is that it takes pictures of the license plates of cars that are passing by/being passed and runs them to check if there are any hits (violations, warrants, that type of deal). Many large police departments are using this system on limited number of cars.

The strange thing about the NYPD cars is how the system is set up. Usually it is set up behind/in front of the lightbar on the roof. But for some reason the NYPD opted to have it on the trunk of their cars.

Thanks for explainig, I have put your text on the original page if that's OK. (Maybe I should have asked it before posting it there...)

That's fine with me
It certainly isn't classified knowledge or anything like that. Just out of curiosity, what did you write over the copy of my text?

And I suppose other people on the site thought it was some sort of radar?

roughly: "detailed answer from an American acquaintance"

It seems that some suggested that it was to recognize plates for stolen cars / speedings.

I just have seen a license-plate scanner in use yesterday, in our vacations.

I was a very little part (not bigger than two cigarette-packets), mounted inside the gate of the harbour of Esbjerg/Danmark, on the way to the ferry terminal to Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

For safety reasons, but also for controlling, if you have paid the toll for two undersea-tunnels on the Faroe Islands. There are mounted these scanners, too.
Btw. the toll is fu..ing high - 130 Danish Crowns (ca.17,50 €). Sure, to pass some tunnels in the Alps costs more money - but the are longer than just 3 km.

Do you have known, where the bridge with most expensivest toll (compared to the lenghts) of the world stands? It's in Scotland, the bridge over the Loch Alsh to the Isle of Skye (just behind the legendaray Eilean Donan Castle). I don't know the actual price, but in 2001 it was over 10 Brit.Pounds.


O.k., as a German it's easy to be upset about toll for bridges, tunnels and especially roads. Here it's unknown (except for trucks). But it maybe come sooner or later. The politicans are looking always, how to get money...

This seems to be something like the ANPR (Automatic Number-Plate Recognition) system in use in the UK, often fitted in a disguised van. More details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition

This was also a reason, why we got a new plate-style in Germany (released in 1994, mandatory since December 2000), to make the plates identifyable by traffic-scanners.

It is the same here ...


North Carolina politicians are progressively looking for more ways to leach money from the citizens.

One such example is new towing & regulation laws concerning boat and boat trailer dimensions (silly and unnecessary) which have been passed recently. Existing laws which were not enforced are now being aggressively enforced.The NC towing community is still very upset about these changes.

Trucks (pickup trucks) and Vans (full-size vans, not those little minivans) are required to have "special" weighted license plates (and they come with "special" prices too!) according to the amount of the total GCVWR on the move (GVWR of the vehicle + GVWR of the trailer)

Strangely, SUVs are by NC law, exempt from almost all NC towing regulations. But I’m sure that loophole will be closed at some point.

Another:
http://www.flitsservice.nl/cm_php/main_repo.php?id=4166

That's merely a deterrent. Some police departments (especially the smaller ones) often use this trick along major routes so that people will slow down or just be more motivated to drive safely. Granted, such tricks will only last so long so a car like this will usually not remain in the same spot for too long.

Some agencies also just simply park some of their older cars along the side of the road, without a dummy figure. I saw this when I went to Williams, Arizona back in 2003 (Williams is the tourist town for the Grand Canyon). The local police had a 1987-1990 Caprice parked out on the road leading into town. People sure did slow down for it.

I have the manner to slow down the speed, when I'm recognizing an old mid-90ies-Ford Escort Turnier (Estate) parking on the right, especially, when it has darkened back and side windows and when the back is hanging down a bit. Same with Opel Astra F Caravans in the same age - they are very common in the Ruhr Area and around as civil speed-control cars.
In the wintertime you can recognize them easier: the wipers are moving time by time, they aren't covered with snow and you can see little exhaust-clouds from the Eberspächer extra-heating.

In the 80ies the police has used very often VW Passat and Santana for that. Also easy to recognize: always basic versions in ugly, unpopular colours.
I had to lough, to see the cars braking, when my father's former car, a 1981 VW Passat was standing beside the street - it was very similar to these police-Passats.

When I was there in 2005 the use of Skye Bridge didn't cost anything. Apparently the Scottish government has bought the bridge from its private operators in late 2004. www.wikipedia.org