Plate readers give cops extra eye on the road

By LINDA M. LINONIS

linonis@vindy.com

liberty

The Mobile Plate Hunter, an automatic license plate recognition computer program, streamlines the hunt for stolen vehicles and plates and enables police to have a “gotcha” moment.

Detective Sgt. Robert “Bob” Greaf said Liberty Police Department got the equipment about two weeks ago.

The license plate recognition program works this way. On the Liberty cruiser, the special cameras are mounted on the trunk. “It’s a high definition camera that reads numbers and letters on the plates,” Greaf said. The computer program links to LEADS (Law Enforcement Agencies Data System), which contains information on stolen vehicles and license plates.

“The ‘hot’ list is updated daily,” Greaf said of the information that is currently limited to Ohio. He said a cruiser can be traveling at 60 mph and the license plate recognition program reads all the plates, then displays a closeup of the plate and photo of the vehicle it’s on.

It’s pretty much instantaneous,” Greaf said of how fast the computer program works and displays the information on the cruiser’s onboard laptop. When there’s a “hit” on a stolen car, for example, the information flashes and a computer-generated voice also alerts the officer.

Greaf said LPD is using the equipment mostly on afternoon and night turns, the most active shifts.

Greaf said Liberty got the equipment through a grant written by Russell M. Pry, grant administrator for the Ohio State Homeland Security Program, Law Enforcement Region 5. That area includes Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties, where various police departments received the equipment. The cost of each unit is $17,000; the grant is renewable up to four years.

Greaf remembers when members of the department resisted using computers as part of their jobs. Now, being without the technology is unthinkable.

Technology helps officers perform their duties quicker and more efficiently. Information about warrants, stolen vehicles, alerts and other vital information is just a click away. No technology will ever replace the human element in police work — specialized training, memory, intuition and knowledge of local neighborhoods and the people. But technology allows officers to spend less time on office work and more time in the field.

Warren Police Department and Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office both received one license reader about 10 days ago, with Warren’s reader logging 13,000 plates so far.

Geoff Fusco of the WPD said the device has led to the recovery of one stolen car and arrests on two warrants.

Fusco said he tested the device on the highway recently and found that it was picking up license plates from vehicles traveling 65 miles per hour in the opposite direction while he was traveling 65 miles per hour in the police car.

The car is used mostly on afternoon and midnights, but will also be used on day shifts, Fusco said.

Chief Deputy Ernie Cook of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office said the sheriff’s cruiser equipped with the device is used for patrol throughout the county. But it will be especially useful for DUI checkpoints and other state-funded traffic enforcement activities, Cook said. “It’s just phenomenal what it can do,” Cook said.

New Middletown police received the same equipment for one of its cruisers. “It will be useful for traffic enforcement, detecting wanted persons,” said Chief Vincent D’Egidio.

The machine alerts the police officer if a license plate has been entered in the state database indicating the vehicle has been stolen or if the vehicle’s registered owner is wanted on a warrant, he said.

A village police officer was to go to the Summit County Sheriff’s office this week to be trained in how to use the license plate reader.

Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington said the equipment “will be an effective tool.”

Various other departments in the Mahoning Valley-area also have the readers.

Contributing to this story were staff writers Denise Dick and Ed Runyan.