A senior police officer has described the imminent introduction of number plate recognition technology as a ‘game-changer’.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology has been in use in the UK for some time and helps police track down vehicles they are after or find out information on the vehicle’s owner quickly.

At the House of Keys sitting this week, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jane Poole-Wilson was asked by Arbory, Castletown and Malew, MHK Jason Moorhouse what progress has been made with the introduction of ANPR.

Mrs Poole-Wilson told the house cannot say exactly when it will be introduced but her department deems it a priority and will bring it in as soon as possible.

Reacting to the news Detective Chief Inspector Michelle McKillop welcomed the news.

She said: ‘ANPR will be a game-changer for us. When people do land on the island who we may have concerns about, this gives us the best information on where they are going if we are looking for them.’

Last week Mrs Poole-Wilson said ANPR would be used to target organised and serious criminality, such as drug and people trafficking rather than to enforce traffic offences.

She said: ‘The department is preparing an order that the UK national ANPR standards will be adopted and adapted for the island where needed.

‘It is important to say that the Chief Constable views ANPR primarily as a valuable intelligence gathering tool to target serious criminality rather than solely as a tool to detect motoring offences or enforce traffic regulations.

‘This aligns with our aim to keep the island safe, targeting those who attempt to come to our island to traffic drugs or people.’

But she did concede the technology could be used to tackle other types of criminality and that deploying the technology would be ‘an operational matter for the Chief Constable’.

Det Chief Insp McKillop also explained another use for ANPR.

She said: ‘This technology will also help us track down missing people who may have a vehicle. This would help find these people much more quickly.’

The technology would be initially deployed at the main port but could also be fitted to operational police vehicles.