Wednesday, February 6, 2013

License plate readers: Extra 'eyes' aid police - SFGate

License plate readers: Extra 'eyes' aid police - SFGate:

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — State and local law enforcement officials said they are increasingly turning to automatic license plate readers to find stolen vehicles and track the movements of criminal suspects.
Authorities tell The Advocate (Extra ‘eyes’ aid deputies | Home | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA ) that the technology, often provided by state and federal grants, has helped solve crimes and share information across agencies.
East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Cpl. Chad Jones said he might have driven right past a pickup truck stolen in Houston without the ever-attentive "eyes" atop his squad car. It was just one of many vehicles in an Albertsons parking lot. But Jones' laptop matched the plate in a national database of stolen cars and an electronic voice notified him of a high-priority alert.
Jones said he arrested the driver on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle shortly after she left the grocery store.
The cameras photograph thousands of vehicles a day. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union want to know how law enforcement is using the images.
Agencies across the Baton Rouge area have readers on patrol vehicles. State police have stationary cameras in strategic locations across the state.
Capt. Doug Cain, a state police spokesman, says they have identified vehicles police knew were involved in bank robberies, letting officers set up and make an arrest.
License plate readers typically use optical character recognition and infrared lighting so officers don't have to do a thing.
The Baton Rouge Police Department has seven, some on marked vehicles and others on unmarked cars, police spokesman Lt. Don Kelly said.
Baton Rouge police credit the $19,000 cameras, bought with state or federal grants, with recovering more than 300 stolen vehicles, 250 stolen plates and some 250 arrests since 2008.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/License-plate-readers-Extra-eyes-aid-police-4247542.php#ixzz2K8HS8hkx

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