Mrs Jones (Letters, May 1) is critical of the way York Police set up cameras in Hull Road on Monday April 28.

Evening Press readers would have seen these same cameras on many of York's arterial routes during the last week. Mrs Jones is correct in observing that road policing vehicles and small teams of police officers were working in support of these cameras.

As the officer responsible for Monday's operation, I agree with Mrs Jones challenge: "why are the police not catching hardened criminals, instead of easy targets such as long-suffering motorists?"

Things were not as they seemed. These cameras were North Yorkshire Police's Automatic Number Plate Recognition system (ANPR): a highly sophisticated computer which reads thousands of moving-car number plates and checks them against the police national computer to identify if the vehicle is stolen or suspected of being used in crime.

The computer can identify suspect vehicles in an instant, the road policing vehicle stops it and a team of officers check the vehicle and its occupants.

The aim is to catch local and travelling criminals as they move in and out of York. The results so far are tremendous and the potential is obvious.

York police are more serious than ever about reducing crime and the fear of crime and have highlighted the need to work "smarter".

ANPR is an example of this. Technology such as this comes at a price, one that North Yorkshire Police could not necessarily afford before the 76 per cent rise in our council tax precept.

Finally, a word of reassurance. Not one of the thousands of motorists who passed the cameras on Monday was stopped or indeed targeted for speeding. That would be far too obvious after all!

Insp Andy Everitt,

York Police Station,

Fulford Road, York.

Updated: 09:31 Saturday, May 03, 2003