Since May 2023, no new police zones can connect to the national database of number plate recognition cameras. After the Brussels and Zaventem attacks, the plan was to install 10,000 ANPR cameras in Belgium. The central database, initiated as early as 2018, can apparently handle only 2,000 cameras. ‘The platform has become gradually unstable and overloaded,’ admitted Interior Minister Bernard Quentin. The problems have apparently been dragging on for some time: “Since four years, no new ANPR cameras can be connected to the central bank,” Nicholas Paelinck, chairman of the Local Police Standing Committee, told De Standaard newspaper. Barely 70 out of 178 police zones are linked to the system. A lot of police districts have then just figured out their own solution, Minister Quentin confirms. The Antwerp police, for instance, would like to offer its own platform to other zones. It’s just waiting for a signature,” said Nicholas Paelinck.
