Police authorities in Aalter, Belgium have taken delivery of a Skoda Octavia vRS fitted with an ANPR system. ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition which is capable of recording the license plate of a car and then a software compares the stored data to various databases.

If the license plate is detected to belong to an uninsured or stolen car for example, the police authorities are alerted and can start to pursue the vehicle. The Skoda Octavia vRS liftback carries a starting price in Belgium of €29,490 but this particular police car in Aalter, Belgium is much more expensive as the ANPR system installed on the hood costs €85,000.

The added kit has probably affected the car's performances a little bit but even so it should still be seriously quick as Skoda says the Octavia vRS sprints to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 6.8 seconds before topping out at 154 mph (248 km/h) thanks to a 2.0-liter TSI engine rated at 220 HP (162 kW). The 184 HP 2.0 TDI variant is slower as it runs the sprint in 8.1s and can only do 144 mph (232 km/h).

 

 

Note, that in Ukraine ALPR system “VIDEOCONTROL-Rubezh” was created  by local engineers to help Traffic Police Department to locate stolen cars or find fugitives. Starting last year there was issued new version of mobile ALPR for city patrol cars with shorter range, lower focal length cameras for capturing plates also on parked cars.