Licence plate scanners now operational

Officials from the Ministry of Infrastructure have confirmed that vehicle licence-plate scanning systems installed along the edges of the Camana Bay tunnels and South Sound are now operational, with more to come.

In response to questions from the Cayman Compass, ministry officials said, “There are plans for seven other gantry points at strategic locations across Grand Cayman.”

The scanning devices, which sat incomplete and inoperable for more than two years, are now able to read and scan licence plates of vehicles as they pass by, to determine whether the registration, licences and insurance details are up to date.

For now, it is not clear where the information, once gathered, is being sent. It is also unclear whether the registered owners of the vehicles recorded by the scanning systems as having broken the traffic law, by driving without the required documentation, will be prosecuted.

The Department of Vehicle and Drivers Licensing began the process of replacing the old yellow licence plates with electronically readable ones in February 2017.

Ministry of Infrastructure officials have also refuted social media claims that the current plate-scanning system doubles as speed cameras, stating instead that such an operation would involve two distinct systems.

“As part of ongoing road safety initiatives, the Government and the Traffic Management Panel are exploring the use of speed cameras to complement the plate scanner system so as to bolster enforcement efforts,” said a ministry official.

In an interview with the 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.

No timeline was given for the overall completion of the project.