The city will become only the second in the country, after Bradford, to use the state-of-the art technology to check the number plates of every car entering the centre.
The £120,000 system sounds a warning when it picks up stolen cars, people with a
n arrest warrant against them, and other troublemakers listed on the Police National Computer.
West Yorkshire Police has hailed the system as the most significant investigative tool since DNA genetic analysis.
Senior officers claim the camera network effectively denies criminals the use of the roads and could provide the key to solving murders and other serious crimes.
In the first eight weeks after its introduction in Bradford in March, the system had already paid for itself by recovering more than 20 stolen cars. It also led to 24 arrests for offences from sexual assault to robbery.
PC Phil Rollinson, CCTV liaison officer for Leeds, said: "Criminals are often dependent on vehicles to commit crimes but by putting these cameras on all the major arterial routes, like the ring road and York Road, we will be denying them the use of the roads.
"We've had so much success with our closed circuit TV in Leeds already. We are more successful than ever at catching criminals and securing convictions. This will be yet another tool for us to use."
Every vehicle driven through the city centre will have its number plate read by a computer monitored by officers at a secret site.
Their details will then be checked against a police database and an alarm sounded when a stolen or "wanted" car is identified.
Officers said law-abiding motorists had nothing to fear from the technology and promised it would not be used to spy on them.
grant.woodward@ypn.co.uk
