Plate-scanning system still incomplete two years on

More than two-and-a-half years since the Ministry of Infrastructure embarked on a mission to upgrade Cayman’s traffic-monitoring mechanisms, through devices capable of scanning licence plates of vehicles as they pass, the system remains incomplete and inoperable.

The most visible components of the system are scanners which have been mounted on the entrance and exists of the underpass along West Bay Road and the Esterley Tibbetts Highway. Another scanner, which was installed at the South Sound Road junction of the Grand Harbour roundabout, has since been removed.

A government spokesperson said the project has been delayed due to COVID-19 and shipping issues.

“The Ministry is making plans to receive [some additional parts] and have them installed so [the] system can become operational in about two months,” a government spokesperson said in a brief statement.

Once completed, the system is expected to determine the insurance and licensing details of passing vehicles.

In 2017, nearly two years before the first announcement of the automated scanning system, the Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing began switching out thousands of licence plates with ones fitted with radio frequency identification tags.

In an interview with Cayman Compass in July 2019, the infrastructure ministry’s deputy chief officer, Tristan Hydes, said the plan was to roll out a network of scanners covering Cayman’s main roadways, which would eventually evolve to link with the court system to issue tickets electronically for a variety of motoring offences.

The plate-scanning system, by itself, cannot issue tickets, and is half of the overall planned traffic-management system. The other half of the system involves similar plate-scanning technology which is currently being used by traffic officers.