CRIME-fighting cameras which target criminals in their cars are to be installed at locations around the county.

Dorset Police has invested in a number of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, able to read more than 3,600 number plates an hour at speeds in excess of 100mph, day or night, in all weathers.

These high-tech pieces of kit, which will be installed at a number of locations over the next three to nine months with approval from local authorities, will help police catch out criminals as they use the county’s roads.

So far such cameras have helped Dorset Police find missing people and provided key evidence in murder investigations and life-changing or fatal road traffic accidents, robberies, volume drug dealing offences and many other types of crimes.

Chief Inspector Bryan Duffy of Dorset Police said: “ANPR is a well established tool for fighting crime, and encompasses the latest technology with smarter thinking to put Dorset Police at the forefront of investment in technology in order to maximise our resources.

“The cameras are not linked to speed enforcement, they are immovable and are locked down onto the road to simply read the number plates of passing vehicles, and not to show the occupants of those vehicles. They will provide us with essential vehicle movement details on specific key arterial roads around the county, helping us to target burglars, thieves, drug dealers, drug and drink drivers and cut crime.”

Data from the cameras will be strictly controlled and only made accessible to a small number of trained officers on an encrypted server. Records are kept for a maximum of two years and 99.9 per cent of the data is never looked at.

Operators in the Dorset Police force control room will be alerted when vehicles of interest to the police are captured on the cameras, and from there they will be able to assess and allocate police resources accordingly.

Members of the public can find more information about the use of these cameras online at www.dorset.police.uk and use the contact us link and the online contact form quoting ‘ANPR’ for any specific concerns and enquiries.