Print Version
E-mail This StoryCar thieves just might cross a bump in the road attempting to drive to their safety zone after the Plano Police Department got on board with the most advanced and accurate Automatic License Plate Recognition software available.
PlateScan works by capturing digital license plate images by camera and sending those images to a computer.
One of Plano’s squad cars is equipped with the four-camera system, which is located at the front, rear and on each side of the vehicle.
As the squad car travels up and down the streets or through a parking lot, license plates are automatically cross-checked in real time against multiple local, regional and statewide databases to identify vehicles that are of interest to the authorities.
According to Rick McDonald, Plano police spokesman, Plano uses the Department of Public Safety’s database to detect stolen vehicles.
“If a vehicle is stolen and there is a match, the system will activate, take a picture of the license plate, give the officer an audible alert and tag the vehicle using GPS showing the officer where it’s located,” McDonald said.
Bob Pinzler, PlateScan’s Marketing and Sales vice president, said the process takes one second from the time the camera reads the license plate, searches the database and alerts the officer.
“They can read up to 140 mph,” Pinzler said. “All the cameras are working simultaneously.”
Dave Howell, Plano’s auto theft detective, said this system will make his job much more rewarding.
“If an officer is on the street and using an in-car computer or radio, he is running around 25 cars per day,” Howell said. “He is only doing 1 percent of what PlateScan is running, which is 2,500-3,000 plates a shift.”
He said one officer assigned solely to run plates during his eight hour shift read 7,000 plates.
Since the $25,000 system was installed in one of Plano’s vehicles, one stolen vehicle was retrieved and officers have come across 24 traffic warrants.
“On Aug. 2 an officer was in the vehicle and got an alert from a vehicle driving past him that was stolen,” Howell said. “It was occupied and we put someone in jail and we recovered someone’s property in great shape.”
Ken MacKenzie, PlateScan’s Southwest Regional Law Enforcement Liaison, said in addition to retrieving stolen vehicles, PlateScan is equipped to track warrants and sex offenders.
He said in North Texas, Lewisville, Richardson, Plano, Dallas and Mesquite are equipped with the system.
As a former Richardson auto theft detective, MacKenzie said PlateScan was installed in Richardson one year ago.
“Richardson has one vehicle equipped and retrieved eight stolen vehicles,” MacKenzie said. “In addition to that it has made numerous warrant arrests.”
Howell said Plano’s PlateScan also helped the officers retrieve two abandoned stolen vehicles. One was used in a bank robbery and the other in a sexual assault.
PlateScan read the license plate at one point and once investigators determined the vehicle used, Howell said they can plug the license plate number into the system and the GPS tag will determine where PlateScan saw the vehicle. In this case, both vehicles were still residing in the same location.
“It works well on the back side as well,” Howell said. “The information is stored for 30 days before it drops off the system.”
Howell said it has always been difficult to find a stolen vehicle with the previous police method.
“You don’t know what you are looking for,” Howell said. “If there are 100 cars at an intersection, you don’t know which one to run. Platescan is like the best partner in the world. It doesn’t need to go to the bathroom, it doesn’t talk, it doesn’t need to eat and it does a lot of work for you.”
Lt. Bill Hedgpet, Mesquite’s public information officer, said the department installed a system in a Citizens Police Academy vehicle, June 6. He said in just six weeks eight vehicles have been retrieved.
“They call dispatch when there is a match,” Hedgpet said. “They concentrate in retail areas, apartment complexes and parks and areas where sex offenders should not be.”
Pinzler said the system originated in Britain to help deal with terrorism. He said it was brought over to the states and “Americanized” about four years ago.
“We work with border patrols and airport parking lots,” Pinzler said. “A lot of projects we work at, I’m not at the liberty to reveal.”
At this point, Howell said he is unsure if Plano will purchase more systems, but he said there is grant money available under different resources he hopes to obtain instead of the city being out the money.
“More cars equipped, means more recovery and less insurance being paid out,” Howell said.
Contact Stephanie Flemmons at sflemmons@acnpapers.com
