## vehicle seals

3/12	Vehicles transporting medicine and medical equipment
3/13	Vehicles transporting food, household goods, and fuel
Vehicles transporting doctors and dentists
Vehicles transporting construction machinery
3/14	Express buses
3/15	Vehicles transporting livestock feed
3/16	Seals for tankers issued at highway interchanges
3/22	Larger vehicles allowed passage without authorized seals
3/24	Issuance ends

## (2) Issuing Seals for Authorized Emergency Vehicles

Along with designating emergency traffic routes, police aimed to issue appropriate authorized emergency vehicle seals needed for passage. At first, police gave priority to seals for vehicles helping to transport disaster emergency measures for the public sector and emergency supplies for the government, as well as vehicles transporting food, medicine, fuel and other essentials. Based on the state of road repair and affected areas, issuance was flexibly expanded. Police worked to expedite issuance by simplifying the process; for tankers in particular, seals were issued at highway interchanges in addition to police stations. A total of 163,208 seals were issued by March 24, 2011, when traffic restrictions were completely lifted.

## (3) Support for Vehicle Parking Certification Procedures

With so many victims losing their homes and vehicles, police simplified the application procedure for vehicle parking certificates to the extent possible to issue certificates quickly. Police simplified the application process and skipped site inspection for parking spaces.

## (4) Support for Driver’s License Procedures

## 1 ) Extensions for Validity Periods

Measures were taken to extend the validity period for victims whose driving licenses expired after the date of the earthquake.

## 2 ) Promoting Reissuance

As licenses are necessary for operating vehicles and useful as identification, license renewal services resumed in all prefectures by April 3, 2011 thanks to hard work in restoring services.

## (5) Handling Out-of-Order Traffic Lights

Many traffic lights went out of order along with planned power outages. Police officers were therefore stationed at major intersections with malfunctioning signals to conduct traffic.

### 4. Ensuring Safety and Security in Affected Areas

## (1) Measures against Opportunist Crimes

1) Deployment of Community Police Special Dispatch Units and Mobile Investigation Special Dispatch Units

To deter illegal activity in affected areas and conduct accurate initial investigations when crimes did occur, Community Police Special Dispatch Units and Mobile Investigation Special Dispatch Units were formed and dispatched to Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectural police. Community Police Special Dispatch Units consisted of officers in police cars (up to 449 officers in 210 vehicles a day), and Mobile Investigation Special Dispatch Units consisted of officers in unmarked police cars (up to 76 officers in 19 vehicles a day).

## 2 ) Strengthening Security Measures for Closed Facilities

As there were instances where cash and valuables were stolen from banks, safes, and ATMs in convenience stores and other locations, the NPA requested banks and other facilities to strengthen security measures by taking measures such as