Automated License Plate Recognition System Gains Traction

Officer.com
May. 08, 2006

The Long Beach Police Department has a new tool on its belt that has improved the officers’ abilities to determine cars with warranted license plates while they patrol the streets of Long Beach.

According to Long Beach Police Sgt. Chris Morgan, LBPD was the first department on the West Coast to implement the automated license plate recognition system (ALPR) that has been in full effect for three months. Since four months ago, police departments in Las Vegas, Michigan and the California Highway Patrol have picked up the program, and the Los Angeles Police Department is currently testing a similar system.

The department has three black and white patrol cars and one unmarked car equipped with the ALPR system, created by Pips Technology Inc., based in Tennessee.

The four vehicles are outfitted with a camera and sensors attached to each corner of the car.

The system works by scanning every plate that comes in the path of the sensor. Every time it reads a plate, the computer inside the patrol car dings and both a picture of the actual plate as well as the plate number the computer reads appear on the screen. The plate number is then run through a database, which has highlighted plates that fall in the category of lost or stolen, and drivers who are wanted for a felony.

The system runs in the background, so it does not distract the officer from scanning the streets, Morgan said. An alarm sounds if a matching plate is found.

If a plate matches a warranted plate in the computer’s database, an alarm sounds and the warrant information appears on the screen. This information tells the officer specifically what the plate has been warranted for, but does not say if it is currently still wanted.

An officer then must call in the plate to see if it is still wanted, and then determine what action to take.

“All it is is a clue to the officer that the vehicle is a vehicle of interest,” Morgan said.

“It doesn’t say if the warrant is still valid.”

According to Morgan, officers who use the program have been trained on how to react to a corresponding plate and use their own discretion whether to act on the match.

According to Long Beach Police Officer Jason Wong the system has been a benefit to the LBPD. In the four months since the police department began using ALPR more than 300 lost or stolen plates have been identified, more than 100 stolen vehicles have been recovered and 31 arrests have been made.

The system allows from 3,000-5,000 plates to be read per shift when normally an officer can only call in about 150 plates during that time.

Occasionally the system comes across slight errors when reading a plate, according to Morgan.

“It has mistaken letters and numbers on occasion,” he said. “Like an L for an I.”

Another benefit, according to Wong, is an officer can manually input the license plate number of car involved in a crime that has recently occurred. For example, if a crime occurs, such as a hit and run, an officer can input the information and the system can identify the vehicle if the officers come across it.

The ALPR system costs around $20,000 per car. LBPD was able to pay for the vehicles from grants to the department. It is currently attempting to get additional grants from insurance companies who would benefit from the system.