The eThekwini municipality unveiled its new state-of-the-art police vehicles at the annual Govtech conference on Tuesday (29 October).<\/p>\n
The vehicles are fitted with cameras which are capable of reading a registration number while in transit, providing officers with the owner’s identity and information.<\/p>\n
The onboard system will also pull information from a national database including the driver’s licensing details, outstanding fines and traffic violations.<\/p>\n
The vehicles are also fitted with dashboard cameras.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BusinessTech metro police spokesperson, senior superintendent Parboo Sewpersad, said that this dashboard feed is continuous and downloads to a cloud storage site.<\/p>\n
He added that the car has its own WiFi system which makes this connectivity possible.<\/p>\n
The cars equipped with this technology shown at Govtech were Volkswagen Golf 7s, however, Sewpersad said that a number of makes and models will have this technology introduced so that they are not recognisable to criminals.<\/p>\n
Sewpersad said that the first of these police vehicles will be in use by the start of the 2019 holiday season.<\/p>\n
\nDurban Metro Police say vehicles with cameras that can read all about the car & owner from photo of the registration number will roll out in the city before year-end. They say the next phase of smart policing will be body cams on police officers. Info on @SABCNetwork<\/a> on #SABCNews<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/mUdSfumlA6<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Siphumelele Zondi (@SZondi) October 29, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n