SPECS is an average speed measuring speed camera system manufactured by the Speed Check Services Limited, from which it takes its name (Speed Check Services). They are one of the systems used for speed limit enforcement in the United Kingdom

Road speed limit enforcement in the United Kingdom

Road speed limit enforcement in the United Kingdom is the action taken by appropriately empowered authorities to attempt to persuade road vehicle users to comply with the speed limits in force on the UK's roads...

.

About SPECS cameras

SPECS cameras operate as sets of two or more cameras installed along a fixed route that can be from 200 meters (660 feet) to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) in length. They work by using an automatic number plate recognition

Automatic number plate recognition

Automatic number plate recognition is a mass surveillance method that uses optical character recognition on images to read the license plates on vehicles. They can use existing closed-circuit television or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for the task...

 (ANPR) system to record a vehicle's front number plate at each fixed camera site. As the distance is known between these sites, the average speed can be calculated by dividing this by the time taken to travel between two points. The cameras use infrared photography

Infrared photography

In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about...

, allowing them to operate both day and night.

There is a popular misconception that the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 has approved the SPECS system for single-lane use only. According to this theory, a motorist can therefore switch lanes between cameras and claim non-approval

HOTA

HOTA is an acronym for Home Office Type Approval, a testing and certification process by the Home Office in the United Kingdom that speed cameras must pass before evidence from them can be admissible in UK courts by way of certification in accordance with Section 20 of the Road Traffic Offenders...

 to avoid prosecution for speeding. However the marketing director of the manufacturer, Speedcheck Services Ltd, has stated that this theory is "categorically untrue":

The cameras are often painted yellow and have been given the nickname "yellow vultures".

Incidents

In February 2007 a letter bomb exploded at the accountants of Speed Check Services Limited in what was believed to be an attack on organisations related to DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 testing and road transport.

Similar systems in other countries

Similar systems are being used in other countries:

• Trajectcontrole (The Netherlands, First country to use "fixed average speed check")
• Section Control (Austria
  Austria
  Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
  
  )
• Tutor or Safety Tutor (Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
  )
• Safe-T-Cam (Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
  )

External links

• Speed Check Services official website
• Safety Tutor Autostrade per l'Italia