License plate scanners in NY

[TheAxeman]

There was an article in Thursdays Newsday outlining how police in Suffolk County (Long Island) have outfitted two patrol cars with roof mounted infrared scanners that scan license plates of parked cars on either side of the road and oncoming traffic. The scanners instantly read license plate numbers and sound an incar alarm if the plate comes back as a stolen vehicle, a wanted person, ticket scofflaw etc....At $26,000 per car the scanners can read oncoming traffic at a cumulative speed of 120 mph and parked vehicles at a cruiser speed of 35 mph. They have been using them since August and on an 8 hour shift the scanners can read between 8000 and 10,000 plates. The scanners are made by a company in North Carolina called Remington Elsag. Evidently the systems are being tested in 15 states at the moment and in the cities of Yonkers and Chicago.....And I thought that after getting the new Passport through the group buy that I was one up on them....

Time to pay up those overdue tickets boys......

 

[Geezer]

Guess I don't object to the LEOs scanning plates for stolen vehicles and scofflaws, but I won't be too happy if they start storing the information about where my vehicle was at some particular time of day.

 

[6mmbr]

...does your license plate have a barcode on it?

 

[Carnifex]

Running plates is a hell of a lot more efficient from a Law Enforcement perspective than running radar. You catch more criminals that way, and you harass less of the general public.

Way back when I first got my start as a dispatcher some 17 years ago one of the Sgt's told me to make sure that when the road guys called out tags to run them quick, because criminals don't go to DMV.

Putting laptops in cars has proven that out - the cops who use the laptop more than the radar consistently pick up more fugitives and 'chance' lockups.

 

[TheAxeman]

...does your license plate have a barcode on it?

This is what I don't understand. It says that the infrared cameras work like a scanner in a supermarket but as far as I can tell NYS license plates don't have bar codes so I'm not sure what they are reading. The article goes on to say that out of the two cars useing the system since August, one of the highway patrol cars caught more than 600 motorists for various infractions including driving without a license and driving with a suspended registration. Ann Arundel County police in Maryland report the recovery of 12 stolen vehicles with it.

Seems funny that this is something I have never heard of before and that it works perfectly since being in operation. Has anybody else even heard of anything like this?

 

[Carnifex]

It reads the plates - since the plates are uniform (same number of numbers, the plates/numbers are all the same size/shape), it's easy to do. Relatively easy. Simple pattern recognition.

A group up in CT had this working about 4 years ago - at one point my agency (DSP) was going to demo it, but it was just too expensive, plus DE plates aren't uniform. There's all sorts of tech available to Law Enforcement that I'm sure the general public doesn't know about.

 

[Centerline]

Just ask ol' Barney, he can tell ya all about the latest high-tech LEO stuff

 

[TWSTYS]

Our Nebraska plates have barcodes. Just issued last year.

Steve

 

[Warpdrv]

Doens't need a barcode, the computer system is setup to read the numbers/letters and access the Database, then flash a warning upon sensing a problem....

Awesome in my eyes... Takes the dirty bastards off the street faster....

Way faster then the Donut muching, Barrel Ass, pud pulling sissy's that drive around in those cop cars.... Just Kidding.... (thats a quote from Movie Boondock Saints)