THE city’s traffic police have seized a total of 747 vehicles using fake, duplicate or covered license plates so far this year, an increase of 10 percent over the previous year, thanks to the automatic recognition system, the traffic police authority said at a news conference Wednesday.

Among the impounded vehicles, 428 were using fake license plates, accounting for 57 percent of the total, 190 vehicles were using duplicate plates, 25.4 percent, and 128 vehicles had illegally covered license plates, accounting for 17.4 percent.

“The police system can identify vehicles with fake or duplicate license plates by using big data analysis. The officers on the roads can then stop the vehicles based on the information provided by the system,” said Li Qiming, a police officer with the Intelligent Traffic Department of the traffic police bureau.

Through data analysis, some suspicious vehicles have also been added to the police databank. For example, it would be impossible for a vehicle to violate a traffic rule in Shenzhen one hour after it had violated a traffic rule in Heilongjiang Province.

The number of fake or duplicate license plates in Shenzhen has continued to decrease, from 4,389 in 2016 to 3,353 in 2017 and 2,435 violations this year.

Police statistics show the number of vehicles using duplicate plates has also been decreasing in Bao’an and Longgang districts over the past three years, but some vehicles are still using fake plates in the areas bordering Dongguan and Huizhou. (Han Ximin)