State-of-the-art technology is keeping Melburnians from visiting regional Victoria while the city remains in lockdown.
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In line with the Chief Health Officer's directions, Melbourne residents are prohibited from entering the regions without a valid reason through to at least the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
To enforce this, Ballarat Highway Patrol is using cars with automatic number plate recognition technology to patrol both arterial roads out of Melbourne, such as the Western Freeway, and back roads.
Ballarat Highway Patrol acting Senior Sergeant David Whitwell said this allowed officers to get off the main roads and use the technology to detect vehicles attempting to leave Melbourne without a valid reason.
"What that enables them to do is make a decision whether to intercept that motorist or not and determine whether they've got a legitimate valid reason for entering regional Victoria," he said. "It's about enforcing the Chief Health Officer's directions around movement around the state."
Police are also using the same technology locally to detect vehicles that might have come from metropolitan Melbourne.
The technology has four cameras fitted to the roof of a police vehicle with one pointing towards each corner.
The cameras automatically detect number plates on the vehicles around the car, reading them and retrieving the car's registration details and the registered driver's licence details from the VicRoads and police databases.
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"Once it reads the number plate, it tells us what the registration details are of that car and provides an audible and a visual alert if that car is from metropolitan Melbourne and not regional Victoria," acting Senior Sergeant Whitwell said.
"The officers have a display screen inside the car that basically shows them the details of the owner and the vehicle and can give other information about whether the car's registered, whether the driver's licensed."
About 450 officers are part of the Victoria Police blitz to prevent people from Melbourne breaking the rules and making their way to regional Victoria.
Last weekend was the first weekend regional Victoria was able to enjoy its somewhat relaxed restrictions while Melbourne remained in lockdown.
Acting Senior Sergeant Whitwell said despite this, the vast majority of intercepted vehicles were found to have a valid, lawful reason to enter regional Victoria.
"I'd just encourage people to follow the Chief Health Officer's directions because there's a good chance that our technology will detect them and they'll be detected and fined if they enter regional Victoria."
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