The UK is and will remain the home of ANPR; however the EMEA region is not set to recover to pre-2009 growth rates until after 2014. Seeking new growth opportunities, suppliers need look no further than the US. Worth an estimated $68.0 million in 2010, the US ANPR market is forecast to more than double in size over the next five years on the back of national congestion initiatives, a move to fixed ANPR systems, and intelligent policing where ANPR is being combined with intelligence to provide a powerful toolset able to detect and investigate serious and complex crime.

With no common budget available for the purchase of ANPR, and the majority of decisions being made on a state-by-state basis it is easy to see why so many have procrastinated, not knowing where to begin. “Worry not”, report author and research director Paul Everett comments. “The US continues to invest heavily in ANPR technology for security and law enforcement and there are a plethora of budgets available. What’s more, with more than 40,000 separate police forces and over half a million vehicles, the US law enforcement sector offers exceptional growth opportunities for suppliers of ANPR technology”

Everett continues, “in previous years, ANPR projects in the US were typically small and sporadic. The market also saw a slowdown in new projects during 2008 and 2009 with many put on hold. However, they are starting to come back. Not only that, the market is also slowly beginning to see projects of a much larger size”.