Niagara Regional Police have a new device to help keep the public safe.
One traffic enforcement unit is now armed with an automated license plate recognition system.
The systen automatically takes photos of license plates, capturing the date, time and GPS coordinates of the detection and then displays an image of the plate and vehicle.
Each plate image is then compared with a database and if the on board computer recognizes a plate as being on a Ministry of Transportation or a Canadian Police Information Centre list, an alert is given and a traffic stop initiated.
The NRP will operate the new device throughout the Region on a daily basis.