Trichy city police have installed 29 ANPR (

) cameras across the city to digitally detect and penalise serious traffic violations that often lead to fatalities, including riding without helmets, triple-riding on two-wheelers, not wearing seat belts in cars, and one-way violations. While the advanced system can effectively penalise vehicles with standard registration plates, it falls short in identifying those with damaged or missing number plates, allowing such violators to evade detection and punishment.

Police said that all nine checkposts guarding the entries and exits of the city are equipped with 21 ANPR cameras to identify two-wheelers that commit offences. Similarly, six locations are equipped with ANPR cameras to identify cars where the driver and front seat passenger have not strapped seat belts.

At two key locations in the city, high-end cameras have been installed to automatically detect vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road, violating one-way traffic rules. These cameras are linked to the city police control room. Once a vehicle's registration number is captured, specialized software used by the enforcement agency identifies the violation and sends a digital challan to the registered mobile number of the vehicle owner-regardless of who was driving at the time. Fines can be paid online.

However, while the system functions effectively for vehicles with standardized number plates, many vehicles in the city-including those with fancy, faded, or damaged plates-manage to escape detection and avoid penalties.

"Some vehicle users have fancy registration plates with misleading numbers. There are chances that the penalty is assigned to another vehicle, not involved in the offence. Police should first standardize the registration plates," Shyam Sundar, a resident of Kattur said.

Police officials acknowledged the lapses, and added that drives will be conducted to regularise number plates. Police added that the cameras can capture the number plates installed in both the front and rear of the vehicle.

"We will book cases against vehicle owners who are using faulty number plates, even if it is unintentional. If owners feel that they did not commit the offence but were levied a penalty wrongly by the ANPR system, they can approach the assistant commissioners with evidence to get the penalty annulled," a senior police officer said.