Police Using Mobile Surveillance Gear Aimed At Vehicles

By Andrew Gorosko

Through a law enforcement grant, town police, among other area police departments, have acquired some sophisticated surveillance gear that provides them with the ability to electronically scan vehicle marker plates to learn whether those plates are linked to any existing motor vehicle and/or criminal violations.

Variously known as “automatic number plate recognition,” “automatic vehicle identification,” “car plate recognition,” and “license plate recognition,” the technology provides police with an electronic surveillance mechanism employing optical character recognition to identify marker plates that are linked to existing vehicular and/or criminal violations.

Administrative Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde and Patrol Officer Todd Dingee this week demonstrated how the new equipment works.

The gear includes two electronic cameras that are magnetically mounted on a police car’s trunk. Visual data collected by the cameras is channeled to a computer within the police car for storage and for comparison to a database listing a series of marker plates that are linked to outstanding motor vehicle/criminal violations. The new equipment is worth approximately $18,000.

Police may use the gear while they are traveling on roadways or driving through parking lots. They also may use it while parked to visually scan the traffic that is passing by them.

When an alarm sounds in the police car signifying a marker plate of interest, police would then confirm the information which was detected by the automatic sensors.

Sgt Bahamonde said that enhanced public safety is the purpose for using such automatic devices for law enforcement.

The types of violations which would most likely be detected through the electronic system would include unregistered vehicles, suspended vehicle registrations, uninsured vehicles, Amber alert, and terrorist alert situations. Also, the equipment may be used to identify stolen vehicles. Additionally, police may locate people who have arrest warrants pending against them, provided that such arrest warrant data in the computer database is linked to an existing marker plate.

Sgt Bahamonde said the electronic cameras may be used by police at enforcement situations such as nighttime sobriety checkpoints and at seatbelt compliance checkpoints.

In the past, state law required motorists to post decals on their front windshields listing the expiration date of their vehicle’s registration. That registration decal requirement is no longer in effect.

With the use of mobile electronic cameras to identify marker plates, the lack of windshield registration decals would no longer be an issue for police.

“We’re going to use it all over,” Sgt Bahamonde said of police’s plans to make widespread use of the new electronic cameras.