Audio clip
Ken Mackenzie
As a sheriff's office patrol car cruises a parking lot, cameras attached to it scan license plates for stolen vehicles.
A gentle beep lets the driver know that each car scanned is not sought in connection with a crime.
But then -- a loud, multi-toned pulse. The alert signals to officers that a vehicle was stolen.
Hamilton County Sheriff's Office deputies demonstrated a PlateScan system Tuesday, driving a patrol car around the county and checking license plates for stolen vehicles and felony warrants.
"The technology is phenomenal," said Lt. Charles Lowery Jr., who oversees the department's traffic division. "It'll eliminate the accusation of profiling because it's scanning so many different plates."
PlateScan captures digital license plate images and instantly checks them against multiple local, regional, state and national databases to identify vehicles wanted in connection with a felony, missing child or theft. The system stores the images, as well as the time, date and GPS location, and officers can plot map points to determine where they've seen vehicles.
When the system hits on a license plate, the officer immediately is alerted through his in-car camera. PlateScan is similar to the cameras used in Coolidge Park to check vehicles, except that the PlateScan cameras can be mounted to patrol cars.
The system can scan as many as 1,000 vehicles an hour using four separate cameras, said Ken MacKenzie, the law enforcement liaison for PlateScan.
"It's nothing we haven't done since vehicles were invented," he said. "Now the computer does it."
A full system can cost $25,000 per vehicle, but cars already equipped with in-car computers can be outfitted for about $5,000 each, officials said.
Lt. Lowery said the sheriff's office will evaluate PlateScan after using it to determine if purchasing the system is feasible.
Privacy is not an issue because the cameras perform the same plate-reading functions as officers, simply faster, Lt. Lowery said.
"You have to have probable cause to make a traffic stop," he said. "You don't have to have probable cause to run a license plate, so it's not violating anything."
DATABASES USED WITH PLATESCAN
Auto thefts
Felony warrants
Be-on-the-lookout-fors
Parking violations
Amber Alerts
National Crime Information Center
Gang members
Sex offenders
Source: PlateScan
Chattanooga police tested PlateScan during the Riverbend Festival and got hits on several vehicles involved in crimes, police said. The department may make plans to buy the devices, they said.
River Street Deli owner Bruce Weiss said he supports whatever legal means police use to fight crime, as long as they don't affect citizens' rights.
"I think the cops need whatever is going to help them," he said. "I don't have anything to hide. I don't think most people do."
With the "optional at extra cost" feature called "Automatic Bootlock", this would be a great feature for police cars surveying the area.
This type of technology should be illegal. The representative stated that it prevented profiling and unwarranted traffic stops. However, in the short segment before this was stated it clearly showed an officer finding a license plate and placing comments on it which then could generate an alert each time this license plate is seen by the system.
Not only will this be used by these officers to stop people with warrants and felonies, but it will also be used to keep "watch" on cars or people they find suspicious or even worse, they don't care for. While it has never happened to me and I pray that it doesn't, I have had plenty of friends and family members who have been stopped without reason by the Hamilton County Sheriffs for "suspicious reasons". I can only imagine that this technology will be the cause of much more abuse of power.
I think it is a great idea. It would help locate felons that have a failure to show for court. If you have outstanding tickets,you should pay them. Obey the law and you will not have any problems with the technology.
Diamondr54, I am an upstanding citizen, have never been arrested and in all my years of driving only had 1 speeding ticket. However, this technology could, and most likely will, be abused and is in an infringement on our rights as citizens as it allows officers to, for lack of a better word, "tag" you if they so choose. If you just give and give and give people will continue to take your civil liberties. It might not be today, a year, or a decade but eventually they WILL get to something you care about and by then it might be too late.
25 years after 1984, Big Brother is definitely watching you. How does it feel?
As Franklin warned us, those who sacrifice liberty for the illusion of safety will lose both, and deserve neither.
I feel at this time time, that officers should go under stricter psychological and higher standards if they want an easier job. Meaning, "detective work" is the thing of the past with technology with tracking systems. Moreover, this type of technology will make a wider door to legally planting magnetic GPS locators on any vehicle the officer wants.
On the foresight, cyber-crimes withing the authoritative branch has a new temptation in damaging constitutional liberties of any citizen it sees worth while. I agree that we can use technology in fighting crime, but the standards to law enforcement officers should be held accountable all along the totem pole.
The only problem i see with this is what happens if the sherriff scan a license plate and it says person is wanted on a felony whether in state or out of state-- but the actually wanted person may not even be in teh car or even driving. Lots of people let friends/spouses/neighbors- drive their cars. It used to be when a car was stopped the officer ran the social number of the divers license to see if there was any warrants-- How do they get warrants out of scanning license plates-- ? I am confused
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