Automatic License Plate Reading System

[scarlet_tunic]

Let me rephrase that....how does the system let the officer (or whoever's driving this rig) know that the vehicle's stolen? Here in Edmonton, I'm not sure if it IS a police officer or a civilian member driving it, as it's an unmarked, red Jeep (or similar).

[coucousis]

Let me rephrase that....how does the system let the officer (or whoever's driving this rig) know that the vehicle's stolen? Here in Edmonton, I'm not sure if it IS a police officer or a civilian member driving it, as it's an unmarked, red Jeep (or similar).

I would presume that my vehicular PC screen would start blinking upon an interesting véhicule target...

[scarlet_tunic]

I would presume that my vehicular PC screen would start blinking upon an interesting véhicule target...

Ahh...silly me, shoulda guessed. It must read those plates awful fast then...amazing what technology does now eh?

[Roger Dat]

yes, reads them just about instantly, its incredible

[pmfc]

Well, the small town about 15 miles west of me must have gotten one helluva good-sized grant recently. They have the license plate readers on the roof of their parking control vehicles. They also have a new analog/digital hybrid Motorola radio system.

I live in a major metro area and I have seen one PD car with the readers parked at a substation.

I'm pretty sure our parking control units have the readers.

[Oldbillplod]

We have had this system in place for about 3 years now.
We have two vehicle fitted with the system, our latest one having infra red so it can read in the dark.

[ObMax1212]

Schenectady and Albany PD in NY have them now as well. Apparantly the units cost $15,000 a piece but the mayor of Schenectady claims that in two weeks the collected $20k of backed parking fines with the system. Not bad at all. I have also seen NYSP cruising around the north end of Albany with APD using them as well.

[Drew27k9]

High-tech van will scan for unpaid Philadelphia traffic tickets


PHILADELPHIA (AP) Officials on Thursday touted a new high-tech van that will scan the license plates of parked cars and trucks to find ones belonging to owners who have unpaid traffic tickets.

The van called AutoVu will hit the streets in early October and will save police officers from having to look for scofflaws, Traffic Court officials said.

A camera linked to a computer will be mounted on the van and will match license plate photos with a court database, Traffic Court Administrative Judge Bernice DeAngelis said. Vehicles whose owners have unpaid fines for moving violations will be booted and eventually towed.

The van will operate seven days a week, and tour all city neighborhoods, officials said. It can scan about 3,600 license plates per day, court officials said.

The court estimates there are 46,000 drivers that owe $36 million in fines to the city.

The van is on loan as part of a pilot program. Officials will evaluate it in several months to see if they want to buy one or more for permanent use, said Dominic J. Rossi, a deputy Traffic Court administrator.

http://cbs3.com/pennsylvaniawire/PA-...rces_news_html

[JD45]

It's funny that you posted this. Just this week, I'm in training in which an officer has a car with the license plate reader you mentioned. I had never seen it before, and was intrigued. From the outside, it looks like it has two radar antennas mounted on the roof. He told me that the thing will read a plate, run it, and check the registered owner's license and whether there are warrants, before the officer can ever get close enough to read it himself! It sounds impressive. He told me that it costs around $20,000, though! His department got it on some sort of grant.

If you happen to find out what grant it was, I'd be interested in attempting a grant myself.

[GrayPatriot]

Let me rephrase that....how does the system let the officer (or whoever's driving this rig) know that the vehicle's stolen? Here in Edmonton, I'm not sure if it IS a police officer or a civilian member driving it, as it's an unmarked, red Jeep (or similar).

You are looking at a monitor in the car and each time your drive by a moving or parked car there is a beep and a green box around the picture of the plate. A picture will pop up less than a second after passing a car. When you drive by a plate that is revoked/stolen etc it will flash red on the screen and siren will go off in the car. It is very loud and unmistakable...

Your partner then types the plate into the Tracs system and it confirms and specifies what is wrong with the plate.

The guy in the passenger seat has to be paying attention in busy traffic so when the plate ABC123 appears you have to be able to tell your partner it is the white Acura 3 cars up now making the left etc... It is much easier in slow traffic and definately a fun piece of equpiment to use.

[TXCharlie]

I'm vindicated!!! :D

Haha - a couple of years ago I was telling the Seargent who oversees us volunteers that I thought something like that was possible using off-the-shelf OCR & database software, plus a minimum amount of programming, but he didn't believe me.

I could kick myself for not rigging up a demo system to prove it to him. :mad:

My idea was for the computer voice to read back the tag number it thought it found, plus the color & make of the car (as found in the database), so the officer could look for the car without messing with the screen, and so it would be obvious if the tag was mis-read or was on the wrong car (as sometimes happens with stolen cars - tags get swapped around).

I was going to have the stolen car database on their laptops refreshed each day with the swap of a memory stick if they didn't have a high-speed wireless WAN and their laptops were not easily detachable so they could plug into the PD's LAN - But that was a problem too, because no one could tell me how I could get a download of the stolen/wanted car database each day, or even for testing purposes, and their MDT's didn't have a memory card slot that I could see.

Oh well...

[JD45]

I'm vindicated!!! :D

Haha - a couple of years ago I was telling the Seargent who oversees us volunteers that I thought something like that was possible using off-the-shelf OCR & database software, plus a minimum amount of programming, but he didn't believe me.

I could kick myself for not rigging up a demo system to prove it to him. :mad:

My idea was for the computer voice to read back the tag number it thought it found, plus the color & make of the car (as found in the database), so the officer could look for the car without messing with the screen, and so it would be obvious if the tag was mis-read or was on the wrong car (as sometimes happens with stolen cars - tags get swapped around).

I was going to have the stolen car database on their laptops refreshed each day with the swap of a memory stick if they didn't have a high-speed wireless WAN and their laptops were not easily detachable so they could plug into the PD's LAN - But that was a problem too, because no one could tell me how I could get a download of the stolen/wanted car database each day, or even for testing purposes, and their MDT's didn't have a memory card slot that I could see.

Oh well...

You still should and patent it. People are always making newer models of things and raking in tons of cash.

You'd have to probably work something out with DOJ in order to get access to the database. I'd say it'd be easier to have the high speed WAN just update after a certain hour when the car returns to the PD.

[BP348]

It's a great system!! They're supposed to put them at all USBP checkpoints. The checkpoint closest to the one I work at has one and it's been a great help in finding and linking people in different vehicles to different illegal activites :D

[prowlassignment]

automatic license plate reading systems are the best invention ever, catches criminals and boosts stats, although the price sucks

but why would you ever want to turn it off and miss the chance to pull in a possibly huge arrest??