Thread: Trunk-mounted device scans hundreds of license plates per mi

How long until they start protests from those driving in the shadows?

Trunk-mounted device scans hundreds of license plates per minute

Posted: Oct 26, 2011 3:34 PM EDT
Updated: Oct 26, 2011 7:39 PM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (WDRB) -- Indiana State Police have announced a new tool in their arsenal to keep people who aren't supposed driving off the road.

According to a news release from Indiana State police, drivers with no insurance, expired licenses or no license at all are on the road every day and pose a hazard to every other driver.

Police say there are over 4 million licensed drivers in Indiana; but there's also more than 222,000 suspended drivers and over 30,000 other drivers who have had their license to drive revoked for five to ten years or even for the rest of their life.

Since they aren't discovered unless they commit a traffic violation -- or worse cause a crash -- there's usually no way to know who they are.

Until now, thanks to police cruisers equipped with License Plate Reader (LPR) technology -- a device mounted to the trunk deck of a state police cruiser that constantly scans, photographs and runs checks on license plates.

The use of LPR's by the Indiana State Police is a pilot program that started in June of 2011, but over the last several months refinements were made to the software to enable the equipment to read Indiana license plates and reduce the potential for false alerts.

Presently there are four LPR equipped state police vehicles across Indiana. These permanently equipped LPR cruisers are assigned to troopers at the Lowell, Bremen, Putnamville and Sellersburg state police posts.

By the end of 2011 the LPRs will be linked into the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicle (BMV) database and will be capable of identifying those vehicles whose registered owner has a suspended or revoked driver's license or is registered to an operator who has been deemed a habitual traffic violator.

In the near future the system will also be capable of identifying vehicles with expired license plates greater than 30 days, but less than a year from expiration.

"We're very excited to put this technology to use in Indiana," said Major Brent Johnson, the commander of the Indiana State Police Operations Support Division. "People who drive with a suspended or revoked license pose an increased risk to the responsible licensed drivers in Indiana. This technology will undoubtedly save lives by helping our troopers identify unlicensed drivers and get them off the road."

The LPR works by constantly scanning license plates –- at a rate of up to 1,800 per minute -- as the police cruiser passes by vehicles while parked or when vehicles pass the state police vehicle on the highway.

They are capable of reading license plates from every state in the union, plus Canada.

When a license plate is read by the LPR it's compared to existing BMV databases to verify whether or not the registered owner has a valid license. However, locating drivers who are not properly licensed isn't the only value of the LPR system.

The LPR will alert the trooper to any license plate read by the system that has been entered in the nation's national database. This would include license plates listed as stolen or associated to cars that have been stolen or involved with some criminal activity. The LPR system could also identify a car being driven by a missing person or a Silver Alert victim as well as vehicles associated with an AMBER Alert.

Each LPR system costs about $22,000. The four systems now in use were purchased by the state police with grant funding from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

http://www.wdrb.com/story/15882668/trun ... per-minute

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