Traffic police yesterday said they have a number of solutions to foil motorists who use a special spray to blur their vehicle’s license plate from speed cameras.
“An additional fine, ranging from NT$2,400 to NT$4,800, will be issued on top of the traffic ticket if police discover that the motorist had used the spray to try and conceal his license plate,” said Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), director of Taipei City’s traffic police division.
‘NOT NEW’
Reacting to concerns raised about the spray by a Taipei City councilor, Fang said that the spray was not new and had been around for years. It first became popular among motorists around a decade ago, but its popularity cooled after a police crackdown.
Fang said the spray forms a reflective layer on the license plate. Its manufacturers claim that the reflective layer will blur the plate numbers if the car is photographed by a speed camera, making it impossible for authorities to identify the vehicle.
The spray works if the camera in question is an older model, Fang said, but “most of the cameras today are digital and the spray, unfortunately, is useless with digital cameras.”
RAID
Cheng Yung-yu (鄭永裕), a lieutenant with Taipei County’s traffic police division, said that random police raids were another solution to combating motorists who use the spray.
He added that Taipei County police had replaced film cameras with digital video systems.
“A simple flash test on the plate with a flashlight can determine if the plate is ‘modified,’” Cheng said. “As for the video system, unless you cover the entire plate, everything will be recorded as is. The spray does not work at all.”
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