http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/apr/22/go ... ers-borde/

GAO Says Lack Of License Plate Readers Scuttles Southbound Smuggling Crackdown
By Amy Isackson

April 22, 2011

Two years after the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, ordered federal agents to beef up inspections of cars leaving the U.S. for Mexico, drivers can still slip through most southbound border lanes undetected.
Photo by David McNew
Above: Traffic in the U.S. enters Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing, the world's busiest, on June 27, 2008 in Tijuana, Mexico.
A recent report by the United States Government Accountability Office, or GAO, says that 48 of the 118 southbound border lanes, headed into Mexico, lack license plate readers.

Plate readers keep a log of cars that cross the border. U.S. law enforcement authorities say the information is essential to investigating crimes like gun and drug trafficking, money laundering and kidnapping.

“To check to see if a suspect has fled to Mexico, we contact Customs and Border Protection, that monitors the plate readers," said Lon Tuner, a Chula Vista Police Department spokesman. "We can learn about a suspect’s border crossing patterns, and can focus our resources, instead of spending extra time chasing down dead end leads.â€