Three Raleigh County police departments will now be receiving Automatic License Plate Recognition devices for installation on patrol vehicles.
Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Jason Redden spoke before the Raleigh County Commission about funding for the devices during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
According to Redden, a multi-agency grant from the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security was recently awarded in the amount of $59,000 for the purchase and installation of three license plate recognition devices. The commission agreed to pay the upfront cost of the devices for later reimbursement through the grant.
One device will go to the Beckley Police Department, one will go to the Sophia Police Department and one will go to the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department, Redden explained.
“The unit is installed on a law enforcement officer’s vehicle and as they drive around, it basically scans and recognizes different things—signs, but most importantly license plates,” Redden said. “It’s really a great help and a great tool for law enforcement.”
In a later interview with The West Virginia Daily News, Redden said that one device, purchased through another grant, has already been used successfully by officers at the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department to capture wanted persons, recover stolen vehicles and more.
An Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) device works by constantly scanning the surroundings of the officer’s patrol vehicle, Redden said. The device picks up images, including license plate numbers, and matches them with information found using the NCIC database. If a match is made, the officer will be alerted through their vehicle’s mobile data terminal. The officer may then conduct a traffic stop, or proceed as necessary depending on the situation.
Additionally, “Be on the Lookout” information may be entered into the system, so the device can alert officers to matches at a local level as well, Redden continued. There is a GPS component to the device that captures the location coordinates of a vehicle’s tags when an image is taken. This allows officers to determine how far a vehicle may have traveled since its license plate was recognized.
As far as privacy concerns, Redden stated that the devices are only used to help locate vehicles or wanted persons who have been placed in the database.
“If they aren’t entered, then we are not tracking them,” Redden said for those who may be concerned about these devices.
Each ALPR device costs about $18,000 each, Redden noted. They will be placed on vehicles soon, he concluded.
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