Government Technology - April 2008 - (Page 20)

Using the mobile data terminal mounted in the police vehicle, ofﬁcers in the Sacramento (Calif.) Police Department access the PlateScan system to view license plates the cameras are scanning while driving. This particular system is capable of processing four vehicles per second. PHOTOS BY JESSICA JONES 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 According to the Federal blow through toll plazas without Bureau of Investia transponder. Now police gation’s Uniform departments — such as those in Crime Reports, Los Angeles and Sacramento, a motor vehicle Calif. — use the technology was stolen in the to locate stolen vehicles, and United States others use it for surveillance. every 26.4 seconds License plate recognition in 2006. Only 12.6 systems typically consist of percent of thefts cameras mounted on police were cleared by squad cars or in fixed locaarrests that same year. tions. 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. APR_08 Early Adopters The California Highway Patrol was the first to adopt automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems, according to Brian Shockley, vice president of marketing for PIPS Technology, which manufactures and distributes ALPR technology. “A lot of West Coast agencies are adopting the technology, and there are pockets in Texas, Chicago, Florida, Ohio and New York state.” 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 12year-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. The plates are automatically cross-checked in real time against multiple local, regional, statewide and, if appropriate, national databases to identify vehicles that are of interest to the authorities. Vehicle matches are reported instantly, allowing the ofﬁcer to take appropriate action. 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. 20 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - April 2008

Government Technology - April 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene Four Questions for... Freeze Frame How Safe Is Your Data? Easy Street Gadget Overload Indiana Overhaul First Person: A Better Bill Data Defense Strength in Numbers Public Storage Products Two Cents Spectrum Personal Computing signal:noise

Government Technology - April 2008

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