Skip to main content

New hand-held technology to bolster traffic enforcement in South Africa

Provincial Traffic Officers in South Africa have been issued with new hand-held devices by the Department of Transport and Public Works as a fast, information-verifying tool that will assist enforcement. These devices have been entirely developed and tested over the past two years by the Department and will be in operation across the Western Cape; a first of its kind in South Africa.
December 22, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

Provincial Traffic Officers in South Africa have been issued with new hand-held devices by the Department of Transport and Public Works as a fast, information-verifying tool that will assist enforcement.

These devices have been entirely developed and tested over the past two years by the Department and will be in operation across the Western Cape; a first of its kind in South Africa.

The devices allow traffic officers real-time access to the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera system, which is linked to the eNaTIS database where all vehicle and driver information is stored.

The cameras read  the number plate of a passing vehicle, immediately relaying details of that vehicle’s make, class, registration status, roadworthy status, offences, warrants, and ownership to a central back office. This information can then immediately be relayed via a 3G link back to traffic officers in the field, positioned close to the ANPR, allowing them to stop a vehicle that has been flagged by the device for having offences attached to it.

The device also allows traffic officers to scan and read vehicle licence discs and drivers licences to verify their authenticity, as well as to pull information relating to past offences and possible warrants of arrest.

The system will also serve as an information gathering tool for traffic management component, assisting the Department to plan resource deployment better in areas where it is needed most.

Related Content

  • KoMoTo unveils through windscreen face recognition
    March 21, 2018
    Taiwanese company KoMoTo Enterprise is showing through-the-windscreen face recognition system on its stand in hall 12. According to product manager Rick Huang, the system can be used in two ways; either to confirm the identity of errant drivers or to locate the whereabouts of a wanted individual. The need to confirm the identify the drivers of speeding and red-light running vehicle for enforcement purposes is likely to account for the majority of uses. However, in countries issuing photo ID driving
  • Improving traffic flow with automated urban traffic control
    April 25, 2012
    Alterations to traffic signals and variable message signs are being activated to reduce congestion as soon as it occurs, through a pioneering fully automatic UTC system. Jon Masters reports In the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley in England, strategies for dealing with traffic congestion have been devised from analysis of queue data, then made to work automatically: “This represents the future of ITS for urban traffic control,” says Siemens Consultancy Services senior engineer David Carr. Over a career span
  • Tighten up on cyber security before hackers infiltrate ITS infrastructure
    October 19, 2015
    This year’s ITS World Congress in Bordeaux will have three sessions dedicated to cyber security and the issue will also be addressed under connected and automated vehicles categories. Jon Masters finds out why. American security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek attracted international press coverage recently when they demonstrated how they could hack into and take control of a vehicle from a remote laptop. While the implications are clearly serious for vehicle manufacturers, highway and transpor
  • Active traffic management increases safety and capacity
    February 2, 2012
    WSDOT is deploying Active Traffic Management in order to increase safety and capacity on its strategic roads. WSDOT's Patricia Michaud elaborates