Staffordshire Police install new vehicle technology

System was paid for by the resale of uninsured vehicles

The Staffordshire Police force has automated the process of releasing seized vehicles

The Staffordshire Police force has automated its process of releasing seized vehicles to prevent them being released to uninsured or unlicensed drivers.

The Easy Link Vehicle Information System (ELVIS), which was adopted by the force in August 2009, liaises with the vehicle recovery garage by email.

The garage does not release the vehicle to a member of the public until it has received a notification from ELVIS that the owner has up-to-date insurance and a valid driving licence.

Previously, a paper-based system was in place. Owners of vehicles that had been seized would collect a paper form from the police to certify that the vehicle could be released.

Unfortunately, said Allan Edwards, Staffordshire Police’s vehicle recovery manager, those forms could be forged and garages occasionally released vehicles to people who were not entitled to take them.

“This helps make the system fairer and more secure,” said Edwards. “We want to make sure the car is returned to the right person and that it is road-legal.”

The ELVIS system, which was introduced in 2006, collects vehicle and keeper information from the Police National Computer and records information about driving licences from the Drivers Database and insurance details from the Motor Insurance Database.

It is used by front-counter staff to make sure that vehicles are not released to owners unless the correct documentation is in place.

When a vehicle is seized, the owner has to go to the police station to claim it, explained Edwards: “Owners produce all the documents to people who are trained in checking them at the police station, and they then ring the Motor Insurance Bureau which carries out checks to make sure the person is covered, and the circumstances of driving the vehicle are correct.

"Once the front-counter staff are satisfied, they enter the information into the database, which sends information to the garage which says ‘This vehicle has been released to Mr John Smith’.

"All that person has to do is take a copy of their photographic driving licence or their passport to the vehicle recovery garage.”

The new link between ELVIS and the vehicle recovery garage cost less than £5,000 and was paid for by the resale of uninsured vehicles, said Edwards.