The new speed cameras soon to be used by gardaí employ an old-style technology which has been successfully challenged in other jurisdictions, says Tim O'Brien
A Garda specification for eight new Gatso-style vans for use in covert detection of speeding motorists, is based on old-style radar technology which has been successfully challenged in other jurisdictions, it has emerged.
Senior figures in the Department of Justice are concerned about the specification, particularly because a second Garda specification for between 60 and 100 new privatised speed cameras is expected imminently.
The specification and tender documents for the eight new covert, Gatso-style vehicles to replace an existing fleet of eight vehicles, was published in recent weeks.
However the second specification for new "privatised" cameras is much larger, comprising between 60 and 100 new machines - but not 600 machines as suggested by Road Safety Authority chairman Gay Byrne in a recent newspaper report.
It will comprise a mixture of fixed and mobile cameras and may include some point-to-point systems which can determine a vehicle's average speed between two cameras.
All the new systems were expected to use the latest available technology, which in most police forces implies the use of laser equipment to replace radar.
Laser-based systems can focus specifically on individual vehicles and even parts of vehicles, giving pinpoint accuracy on which vehicle is actually speeding.
In comparison, radar systems have been demonstrated to perform inaccurately if there is background movement, such as a second car nearby, or even waving branches of a tree.
Because of this, radar is frequently backed up by secondary elements such as a grid on the road, as is used by the gardaí. When a speeding motorist is detected by radar the camera automatically takes two photographs as the car passes across the grid painted on the road. It is the distance the car travels on the grid, in the time between photographs, which calculates the speed of the car.
But the drawback of this system is that it is not discrete, and is therefore inappropriate for covert systems, such as Gatso and Gatso-style vehicles.
The Department has expressed concern that the covert vehicles are not to be married to a covert detection system. Senior Department sources told The Irish Timesthe only advantage of radar was that it could tell the difference between a car and a truck - which on some roads have different speed limits - but the source said this was outweighed by the number of times radar evidence had been challenged successfully. Industry watchers who have been awaiting the specification for the new cameras have also expressed some surprise at the requirement for the use of radar in the eight new vehicles.
This is because the Garda have already taken delivery of many laser guns which are the commonly used "hairdryer" machines utilised by mobile patrols. Laser is also used by the gardaí in cameras which are mounted in the back of police four-wheel-drives.
It is understood that the new specification will for the first time include automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, although Dublin City Council currently has this system on the M1 for civilian use.
While this will be new to the Garda it has been used for many years in Europe, including Northern Ireland and Britain for detection of average speeds, but also for anti-terrorism purposes.
The current Irish fixed speed cameras require the gardaí removing a "wet" film from the camera and taking it to a processor before studying the images for validation in a process that can take an officer half a day.
Films typically have capacity for just 200 photos which means the gardaí would have to visit very regularly - even up to a few times a day on roads such as the M50, in order to catch a reasonable proportion of offenders.
The proposed eight new Gatso-style vehicles will have the radar detection systems linked to video recording.
Systems in use in Europe utilise laser detection recorded digitally which can be downloaded from the camera by phone, and checked visually by back-office staff before being presented to police officers for verification and prosecution of the drivers. Similarly digital information from two point-to-point cameras which are linked, can be downloaded by phone and prosecuted in a similar fashion.
Possibly the most advanced speed detection system in the world is located on the 880 kilometre Hume Highway in Victoria, Australia.
Most point-to-point cameras utilise two cameras focused on the same lane of a dual carriageway/motorway, and a separate two cameras focused on another lane.
But the point-to-point system on the Hume Highway can utilise more than two cameras, so ensuring those who try to avoid a second camera by switching lanes, are still caught.