Spy cameras to track cars

THE Stuart Highway is set to get 24-hour monitoring by surveillance cameras as part of a crackdown on crime, national security and road safety.

Hundreds of cameras that record number plates will be set up on Australia's major highways under the plan by CrimTrac, which has been approved by state police ministers.

The cameras could also be used to detect people speeding on the highway, now limited to 130km/h.

CrimTrac chief executive officer Ben McDevitt said the system would be useful in police investigations.

"You imagine something like the Falconio murder where the Stuart Highway is a single highway which services most of the traffic between Alice Springs and Darwin,'' he said.

"This sort of technology would have been invaluable to an inquiry like that.''

The proposal was agreed to during a recent meeting of police ministers, but the NT did not attend because it coincided with the Estimates Committee hearings.

The Chief Minister's spokeswoman Michelle Fraser said the Territory Government was yet to discuss the proposal.

Mr McDevitt said tracking cars would also be useful in tackling interstate drug-running.

"It has got applications across three spheres. One is road safety, the second is criminal investigation and the third is with national security, such as terrorism,'' he said.

"It's quite sophisticated technology in that it can read the number plate and match it against the hit-list of (persons of) interest.

"This technology, you can put it across all lanes of traffic and what it will do is pick up vehicles up and up to about six cars a second.''

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 3 Sept 2007
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Reporter: Nick Calacouras
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://www.ntnews.com.au to 160km/h