National Capture Car Programme to Help Cut Crime.

AVCIS, the Association of Chief Police Officer's Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service has launched a new national Capture Car programme in association with Cobra, the European market leader in stolen vehicle tracking and recovery.

AVCIS has a fleet of vehicles, fitted with Cobra's state-of-the-art Capture Car technology, available for hire by the UK's police forces."This programme aims to remove the need for forces to deal with multiple suppliers and means that vehicles can be used on rotation so they do not become familiar to criminals," said Head of AVCIS, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hooper.

The cars are deployed across the UK in order to catch criminals in the act as they try to break in, steal items or damage vehicles. When a thief forces entry into the car, the interior surveillance system, which features tiny high-resolution covert cameras that operate day and night, will capture the criminals on film. A motion sensor will also trigger automatic intrusion alerts, sent to 3G mobile telephones.

In the past police have had to wait until prolific offenders have led them to their houses or to the location of other stolen vehicles before making arrests. Critically, all the data collected with a Capture Car provides forces with the opportunity to make arrests with admissible video proof, which can then be used as evidence in court.

DCI Hooper continued: "This new Capture Car fleet will provide the UK's police forces with a highly
cost-effective and covert resource to catch would-be car thieves. We are confident that a programme such as this will help in the fight against vehicle-enabled crime by catching criminals red-handed."

Andrew Smith, Managing Director of Cobra UK, added: "Cobra has been at the forefront of protecting vehicles and their contents with highly innovative products across Europe for over 25 years and we are delighted to be working with AVCIS on this initiative."