Police technology hot on unregistered cars

Nathan Johnston
POLICE from the Dandenong Traffic Management Unit are using new mobile technology to pull over unregistered vehicles by the dozen.
Unit member Senior Sergeant Alan Dew said the data terminals were carried in patrol cars and increased fivefold a police officer’s ability to make vehicle checks.
“Prior to this new technology, police could perform only a limited amount of checks because the process was tying up too much air space on the police radio.
“Now, police sitting at the traffic lights can tap in the registrations of cars around them to find out whether the vehicle is registered.”
Sen Sgt Dew said the results had surprised him.
“We had a vehicle set up for two hours recently in a Dandenong car park and found 16 unregistered vehicles.
“We ran a major operation in June and July, when we checked around 1800 cars and found that seven per cent (126) of the cars were unregistered, which I thought was quite astounding.”
Owners of unregistered vehicles face $527 onthespot fines, possible loss of number plates and the inconvenience of having to leave a car.
Sen Sgt Dew warned all motorists to pay their registration fees or prepare to face the penalties.
“I’d encourage all people to budget for the costs of registration fees because the likelihood of getting caught now is much higher.”