Every plate is photographed, time-stamped, labeled on a GPS map and automatically logged into an Arizona Department of Public Safety database.
November 23rd, 2008Via: Arizona Republic:
Officer David Callister parks his patrol car under a shady interstate overpass, angling his cameras to target a flurry of passing traffic. Then he waits.
Infrared units mounted to the front of Callister’s vehicle scan the license plates of a Casa Grande firefighter, an Ohio State football fan and everyone else who drives past as he hunts for stolen vehicles.
Every plate is photographed, time-stamped, labeled on a GPS map and automatically logged into an Arizona Department of Public Safety database. An electronic voice alerts Callister to stolen vehicles within seconds after they pass, giving him the ability to make quick arrests.
Callister is among the growing number of Arizona officers who use cameras to scan thousands of plates on a daily basis, sweeping parking lots and highways to recover stolen vehicles faster than ever before.
In the past two years, the technology has been lauded as more than a tool to thwart car thieves. DPS claims its program has the potential to intercept violent criminals and Amber Alert suspects, though lawmakers and activists raise questions about invasion of privacy for average citizens whose plates are scanned.
In a state that routinely ranks among the top five in the U.S. in auto theft, DPS scanned more than 1.6 million plates since introducing its first cameras in 2006 – leading directly to 122 felony arrests.
Callister, a DPS Border Crimes Unit officer, uses a set of the agency’s 25 plate-reader cameras to track stolen vehicles south of Phoenix. He said the system supplements everyday police work, freeing him from the routine checks that used to consume his time.
“Three years ago, all I had in my car was a radio to talk to a dispatcher, and I had to wait my turn,” Callister said. “If I was lucky, I could run 10 vehicles a day,” he said. “Now, with the plate reader and my computer, I’ve had days when I’ve read over 8,000.”
I have seen those cars here in the Dallas area. It drives me nuts to see how much money they waste on monitoring the highway. It pisses me off to think of the Police as a business.
The side of the Police car on Transformers had it right, “To Punish And Enslave.”