Tracker-stolen vehicle recovery system

TRACKER Network (UK) Ltd has secured the agreement of all the 51 Police Forces in England, Wales and Scotland to operate the TRACKER stolen vehicle tracking and recovery system throughout Great Britain. TRACKER Network has also been granted a dedicated radio frequency by the Radio Communications Agency of the DTI and has concluded a nationwide transmission agreement with National Transcommunication Limited. In addition, type approval has been granted for all of the components of the operating system. Here, the author describes the TRACKER system which is based on a small transponder which is fitted to vehicles. When a vehicle equipped with a TRACKER unit is reported stolen, a telecommunications system linked to a central computer transmits a digitally encoded radio signal to the transponder in the stolen vehicle to activate its tracking signal. Police officers in patrol cars fitted with police tracking computers can then, in the course of normal patrol activities, detect the signal transmitted by the TRACKER unit, locate and recover the stolen vehicle