TOWN centre CCTV systems could be combined with vehicle number plate reading technology in a bid to drive criminals off East Lancashire's roads.

The move, which would mean crooks having a Big Brother-style eye tracking their every move, has been put forward in Lancashire's policing plan for 2005-2006.

Automatic Number Plate Reading (ANPR) technology has become one of the police's most successful weapons since first being used in summer 2003.

Road safety bosses have already said they would like to combine ANPR with speed cameras -- and now police are following suit.

ANPR can read 3,000 number plates every hour and check them against records from the DVLA, national police computer and local intelligence systems.

The system beeps to alert police to a suspicious vehicle, allowing the officer to stop the driver.

Since ANPR's launch in Lancashire, it has helped police catch 1,000 criminals including 70 persistent offenders and recover stolen vehicles worth £350,000. Officers use the technology from patrol cars.

But police bosses believe ANPR's potential is so huge that they must use it on a wider scale.

The policing plan says: "We will seek to integrate ANPR with town centre CCTV systems in the county to deny criminals the use of Lancashire's roads."

Police hope that combining the two technologies can be done in a way which will alert them automatically to the presence of a suspicious vehicle, so officers can be quickly mobilised.

Alternatively, the movements of the criminal could be logged to use as evidence or intelligence.

It is felt the CCTV/ANPR system would greatly reduce criminals' ability to drive freely around East Lancashire and, therefore, reduce crime.

Few details have been made available of how this will be done, but one drawback would appear to be expense. When road safety bosses announced they wanted to merge ANPR with speed cameras, they said it would cost around £100,000, four times the amount of a typical Gatso.

Meanwhile the policing plan's overall aims were to reassure the public and reduce and investigate crime. Bosses said they would do this by focusing on alcohol-related anti-social behaviour, drugs supply, hate crime, burglary, serious and organised crime, terrorism, vehicle theft and violent crime.