" License Plate Recognition Systems Extend the Reach of Patrol
Officers "
Being caught on camera comes
with the territory in the UK, where license plate recognition systems are well
established. But now the technology is taking root in the United States.
U.S. police are seeing
spectacular results from license plate recognition systems, which extend the
reach of police, providing functionality much like an extra officer. Nearly 400
of the 1,800 police agencies in the United States now have at least one license
plate reader, and as the word of its potential spreads and prices fall, that
number is expected to grow.
Since 1991, Britons have
watched as the number of cameras used to keep an eye on the public has grown to
more than 4 million. There are more than 200,000 in London alone, and by some
estimates, Britons are filmed more than 300 times a day.
In the United States, the
technology emerged on toll roads where radio frequency identification (RFID)
transponders are used instead of human toll collectors. License plate
recognition technology records the identity of motorists who blow through toll
plazas without a transponder. Now police departments -- such as those in Los
Angeles and Sacramento, Calif. -- use the technology to locate stolen vehicles,
and others use it for surveillance.
License plate recognition
systems typically consist of cameras mounted on police squad cars or in fixed
locations. The cameras are linked to an optical character recognition (OCR)
processor that reads the data and compares it to one or more databases. In the
event of a "hit" on a license plate in a stolen vehicle database, for example,
an alarm alerts officers of the match.
Agencies using the technology
say it dramatically increases their ability to spot stolen vehicles, and it may
prove even more valuable for other investigative tasks. But the systems aren't
cheap -- it's upward of $20,000 to equip a single police cruiser. And privacy
advocates worry about what police will do with the license plate data they
collect, as agencies ponder its use for everything from catching tax cheats to
rounding up parking scofflaws.
Early Adopters
Without license plate readers,
police drive around and type license plate numbers into a laptop or mobile data
terminal (MDT), waiting for a hit on a stolen vehicle. Automating that process
allows agencies to check many more vehicles, and it frees officers' hands in the
process.
And ALPR systems can help in
the investigation of more serious crimes too.
In 2005, a trooper on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike was alerted by his ALPR of a stolen vehicle. The trooper
confirmed the vehicle was stolen and that the three occupants were also wanted
for kidnapping and attempted murder. The ALPR system was only in use for a week.
In 2007, in San Jose, Calif.,
an officer was alerted of a stolen vehicle by his ALPR system. The officer
investigated and soon found the vehicle was used in the kidnapping of a
12-year-old girl days earlier. The girl had escaped, and because of the ALPR,
the suspect was arrested and charged with kidnapping and forcible child
molestation.
That same year in Roseville,
Calif., witnesses to a hit-and-run that killed a 76-year-old man offered police
a partial license plate number. Police used their ALPR system to query the
back-office software on the partial plate and the location of the hit within a
10-mile radius. They came up with a few results, one of which led to a felony
hit-and-run arrest.
Source: [ govtech ]
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