Several million cars photographed on crossing Finnish borders

LIPRE surveillance system gives customs and police information

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A registry maintained by Finnish Customs has collected information on several million cars that have crossed a Finnish in recent years.
      The Licence Plate Recognition (LIPRE) system records the time and place where a border was crossed, the car's speed, and it also photographs the car.
      The law allows customs officials, the police, and the Frontier Guard to use the information in the prevention and investigation of crimes.
      Investigators use the register to find out when a certain car has arrived in Finland or when it has left the country. The system also sets off an alarm if a car that has been reported stolen appears at a border crossing. According to Seppo Sivula of the Ministry of the Interior, the alarm comes so quickly that stolen cars can be stopped before they proceed.
      The system also records information and pictures of cargo containers entering and leaving Finland.
     
LIPRE was first used in Finland five years ago at the Vaalimaa border station. Since then, it has also been adopted at passenger and freight terminals, and on the Swedish and Norwegian borders.
      Kai Vehmersalo of Finnish Customs says that the system is in use "at about half of Finland's border crossings". Officials will not disclose which border crossings have LIPRE equipment. However, in a few years the system will be taking down the information of every vehicle that enters or leaves Finland.
      The information is kept for about two years before it is deleted from files.
     
LIPRE and similar systems are still fairly rare in Europe, and Finland's border with Sweden is believed to be the only internal border of the Schengen zone to have such a programme.


Links:
  Board of Customs

Helsingin Sanomat