By Sahar Foladi
Operation Amity will be in full force this Australia Day long weekend with Police issued a stern warning to those getting behind the wheel when they shouldn’t be.
Operation Amity will see police across the state utilise automatic number plate recognition technology (ANPR) to detect and prosecute drivers who’re unlicensed, suspended and disqualified thanks to the government uplift.
Assistant Commissioner for road policing, Glenn Weir said, “We’ve seen an unacceptable road trauma at the start of 2023. We can’t continue to have people lose their lives by making poor decisions so we’ll be out there trying to ensure that people comply with road laws, that people aren’t speeding, driving whilst impaired and particularly aren’t driving when they shouldn’t be.”
With the new technology, police will take stern actions against anyone found especially, driving when they shouldn’t be.
There are 239 highway patrol vehicles across Victoria and each of them will be fitted with the technology as well as additional police cars in regional and specialist areas.
Additionally, there will be unmarked police cars with the new technology on the roads as well.
“They might be a marked patrol car, a motorcycle or an unmarked car people will not know which vehicle is detecting for driving them when they shouldn’t be.
So I want to make it clear to people, if you run gauntlet of driving when you shouldn’t be, you will be detected,” Mr Weir said.
The ANPR technology also picks up a whole range of other factors such as, stolen cars and unregistered vehicles.
“We have a focus on broader law enforcement, we can input a whole lot of data on the list that can check people who are wanted, people who are person of interest for whole range of criminal activity as well,” Mr Weir said.
The ANPR technology can scan up to 76 million number plates a year or 8,675 number plates an hour with that, there are more ANPR-fitted police vehicles on Victorian roads than ever before.
“We know that people use this short period to get away before the kids could go back to school so places like Phillip Island, Mornington Peninsula and East Gippsland we will have a strong presence,” Mr Weir said.
Police will also be targeting feeder roads.
During the pre-Christmas blitz operation it was clear a lot of people were driving when they shouldn’t have been.
Police detected over a thousand of such cases which is why Operation Amity will be enforced for Australia Day long weekend.
“We saw levels of speed and levels of driving impairment, people were over the limit of alcohol or who had drugs in their system, but the one that really stood out was people detected for driving when they shouldn’t have been,” Mr Weird said.
It comes as unauthorised drivers were involved in 31 fatal collisions last year, a 29 per cent increase on the previous year which is another reason why this operation is vital.
During a recent state-wide road policing operation, ANPR helped police detect 1,021 motorists who should not be on the roads, 33 per cent more than the previous year.
The media opportunity in the outer suburban area was another road trauma location in 2021.
“Last year we ran a lot of operations in around this particular area and saw real reduction all the local police state-wide resources came together really well to reduce trauma.”
Police ask roads users to slow down and plan their journey.
“We can’t be everywhere at all time I really want people to take responsibility for their own actions.
Wake up, grow up and arrive safely, that’s what we want,” Weir said.
