Do ANPR vans also serve as speed camera vans? If yes than might get a nasty brown envelope from "safety" camera people :(

ANPR vans are just that.

They are for scanning plates and showing any markers on PNC, DVLA or the Motor Insurance Database only.

Only Safety Camera Partnership vehicles and certain Police patrol vehicles carry speed checking systems.

Phew!

Thank you! :)

Lucky so and so then ;)

ordinarily (time of day dependant etc), you would have the van at the front, then just a half mile or so down the road, they might have bobbies on bikes,in cars etc. What they would do normally (if its not a tax check point) is send the details of the offence (no tax, MOT, wanted flags etc) on to the bobbies waiting a bir further on. so I wouldnt worry too much!

This van was there 24x7 for last week or so. It seem to be unmanned (unless there is someone hiding inside of the van). There are no other police cars or visible reinforcements.

Just the van with ANPR Operation Guardian written on its sides and 2 cameras sticking out of rear window.

Google told me that this is Northants crackdown on burglaries and car thefts, its basically a portable ring of steel they have going on. So that if a stolen vehicle passes, it will trigger the ANPR (the same for if the occupant has been reported for a bulrglary). This then would be fed on to the police. If its their 24/7 they might not always have the resource, but I expect at some point during the day, they will have ground units very close to the site of the ANPR, if not sat down the road waiting for the intel to come through.

By all accounts, it seems to have been a good project running from around 2011, and its good to see the force isnt dropping it as it seems to be doing a good job!

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/crime/crime-news/northamptonshire-police-celebrate-operation-guardian-landmark-1-3542283