In certain parts of Elizabethtown, police are working to install 20 cameras that will record every car in view.
Officers will have access to photos showing not only vehicles’ license plates, but unique details like roof racks and stickers and and how often a car passes by.
Elizabethtown officials experimented with automated license plate readers in the past but made another effort in the past year after seeing how other agencies have used them, according to Maj. David Fegett, the police department’s deputy operations chief.
The technology can link to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center and other databases, helping police quickly identify stolen vehicles or a car carrying a missing person, for example. And it can be used in investigations where a vehicle’s description may be among the only evidence.
Plans call for the Flock Safety cameras to be mounted along major roads leading into Elizabethtown in the coming months. Fegett said the program will be funded by $5,000 from the Lowe’s hardware store and a $50,000 annual appropriation in the city budget.
In Elizabethtown, the city of nearly 32,000 people, officials are already planning for the inevitable growth from Ford Motor Company’s $5.8 billion electric vehicle battery plant being built nearby. Fegett, who oversees the police camera program, acknowledges that some residents are apprehensive about more surveillance.
But he said the department will craft a policy governing license plate readers that includes “checks and balances” on their use.
Source: WDRB
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