Jenoptik

🇩🇪 Germany — UK national ANPR + US border

The first vendor to ship plate + device tracking in the field: TraffiCatch has run in Texas border counties since ~2019 on DHS grant money.

The company

A publicly traded German photonics group headquartered in Jena; its Jenoptik Robot GmbH division supplies much of the UK's national ANPR network and US border-county deployments. UK national ANPR backbone; US border counties.

The platform: TraffiData + TraffiCatch

Back office storing billions of reads with hotlist comparison and pattern analysis; TraffiCatch merges captured Bluetooth device addresses with plate reads.

TraffiCatch. Detects Bluetooth device addresses from phones, smartwatches, earbuds, and car entertainment systems, and merges them with the licence plate — Jenoptik's own marketing.
National scale. Jenoptik hardware feeds the UK's National ANPR Service: ~14,000 cameras, 100M+ reads per day, 12-month retention, no statutory basis.

📎 On the record: Deployed with Vector ALPR trailers in Webb and Val Verde counties, Texas, funded by DHS Operation Stonegarden and Operation Lone Star.

Sources: NOTUS investigation (Jenoptik marketing quote) · EFF: Bluetooth border surveillance (TraffiCatch) · EFF: identifying border ALPRs (Vector + TraffiCatch trailers)

The hardware — model by model

VECTOR / VECTOR2 / VECTOR3

Fixed multi-lane ALPR (also portable/trailer)

Radios: No transmit radios in the camera — built-in GPS is receive-only; wired LAN backhaul; trailer variant runs 2×330W solar
Imaging: Dual 3.2MP sensors (monochrome ANPR + colour context), integrated IR — captures on completely dark roads; motorized zoom/focus
Power: Mains/low-voltage; solar on trailers
Notes: IP67 + IK10, under 8kg (VECTOR SR variant).

Sources: Jenoptik ALPR product pages · Police1 VECTOR overview

24GHz enforcement radar

Companion radar for speed/red-light systems

Radios: The certified transmitter in Jenoptik deployments: 24GHz K-band 3D tracking radar, FCC grantee QJJ (e.g. QJJ-590113, 2024) — tracks up to 186 mph across 3 lanes
Imaging: None
Power: System-powered
Notes: The camera is passive; the radar beside it carries the FCC grant.

Sources: FCC grantee QJJ (Jenoptik Robot GmbH) · FCC grant QJJ-590113 (2024 radar)

Certification record: FCC grantee QJJ (JENOPTIK Robot GmbH) covers the radar line; the cameras carry no transmitters. Verify: FCC grantee QJJ filings

⚠ TraffiCatch is the first documented plate+device tracking in the field — see the antenna problem. Sources: NOTUS: TraffiCatch investigation · EFF on TraffiCatch

Every specification above traces to a certification filing, teardown, carrier device listing, or the vendor's own datasheet — the full paper trail with links lives in the open research base.