Every job becomes easier and more efficient with tools.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s office employs a device that aides in law enforcement rapidly and with sometimes lifesaving speed. LPR (License Plate Recognition) is that tool.
License Plate readers have been in existence since 1976, when the first reader was developed in England.
Sheriff Rob Milby and Chief Deputy Joe Croft agree that it is a valuable tool for crime fighting and crime stopping.
According to industry manufactures, like Axon, LPR (License Place Recognition) technology has become an industry standard that has proven to be an effective and efficient way for law enforcement to detect, solve, prevent, and deter crime in an unbiased manner.
With this real-time alerting, officers have a much higher probability of intercepting criminals in the act.
Here is how the cameras work: The LPR takes a photo of the license plate, then that image is sent to a database where police departments have a “hot list,” an inventory of plates authorities are looking for. It could be a stolen car, a vehicle used in a crime, or the car of someone wanted for breaking the law. It is tied into the NYS DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and is updated twice a day.
License Plate Recognition systems function to automatically capture an image of a vehicle and the vehicle’s license plate, transform the plate image into alphanumeric characters using infra-red optical character recognition, compare the plate number acquired to one or more databases (also known as “hot lists”)
The Wayne County Sheriff’s office recently received a Department of Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Technology grant in the amount of $249,000 to update their marked cars with even newer technology. The stationary plate readers within the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and annual software costs associated are costly, but are becoming more integrated into camera systems already in their units.
When the LPRs first became available, Sheriff Milby admits to being one of the first to pur-chase the system. “The initial purchase of $16,000 covered two stationery units to be mounted to a vehicle. That cost has risen to $18,000 for each individual camera, or $36,000 per vehicle. “We have had our units for about 12-13 years, and they have always been funded through grants, not County or Department funds. Deputies must be trained to use the system.
Twelve of the Sheriff Department’s marked vehicles currently are equipoped with LPRs, and now, with advancements, the cameras already used in patrol vehicles can be incorporated into the license plate reading skill.
Driving down a roadway, the reader will acknowledge any “hit” on a stolen car or one that is wanted as part of an investigation. It will help identify a vehicle of a missing person, or hit on a stolen plate. It can even help track down sex offenders.
In case there is a question of the legality of using this technology, Sheriff Milty advises that New York State gives law enforcement the authority to check license plates, without suspi-cion of a crime. He cited case law: People vs Bushey 2017.
“Operating on a public highway is a privilege, not a right” stated the Sheriff.
“I became so convinced of its usefulness as an essential crime fighting tool, after the LPR system helped us locate and arrest Timothy Dean, the perpetrator of the October 2018 dou-ble murder case in Sodus.
“The software connects us to the DMV system, when it takes a photo of the vehicle and plate it an also give us a history of where a vehicle has been.”
He noted that the Axon camera system they use is now integrated with the Deputies’ Body Cameras. It is the same company that provides the software. The latest upgrade will now allow us to go from 12 vehicles currently using the outside ELSIG brand cameras to an integrated software with the cameras already in our parked cars.
“We are using 12 outside-mounted units now, but will soon be able to support 62 patrol cars with the plate reading capability,” said Chief Deputy Croft.
Even a partial plate number can assist with a 911 crime search. Analysis of data found that police cars equipped with LPR technology showed a 140 percent greater ability to detect stolen cars.
It is, however still up to an officer to detain a person wanted in a crime. That might mean detaining them, arresting them or getting a stolen car off the streets. Technology finds car, but law enforcement must still make the arrest.
They are an extra set of advanced eyes and an effective and efficient tool.
