LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The Michigan State Police are debuting license plate readers to help cut down on escaping perpetrators in freeway shootings and road rage incidents.
Currently, officials are only installing them along freeways where shootings and road rage incidents frequently occur. Metro Detroit will be the first recipient of the new technology that has been in the works for the past six months according to WSJM.
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“License Plate Readers are part of a community wide approach to deterring violent crime,” Michigan State Police Second District said in a tweet, “These along with @GovWhitmer investments in public safety will allow us to add assets to reduce crime and gun violence.”
Data collected from the cameras will only be placed in a database for 30 days according to Michigan State Police Lieutenant Mike Shaw.
“As soon as we get where the suspect vehicle is, we can go in that database and look for vehicles that match the description,” Shaw said, “Then the detectives can start to do a work up on that particular vehicle, the registered owner and things like that, to determine if that might be the suspect in that shooting.”
Some departments throughout Michigan use similar technology to help increase the efficiency of law enforcement officials. License plate reader systems (LPRs) are cameras that record vehicles’ license plate numbers, date, time, as well as the make model, and color of the vehicle, combined with the GPS coordinates.
According to HometownLife, LPRs are used by the Michigan State Police, Chesterfield Township, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Flint, Grosse Ile, Grosse Pointe Park, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lincoln Park, Livingston County, Metro Airport, Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, Southfield, Sterling Heights, Troy, Wyoming, and Van Buren.
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The Canton Police Department will host an educational presentation on the benefits of license plate readers at a town hall meeting on Feb. 7 to survey public interest about installing a camera system at the intersection of Michigan avenue and Beck Road.
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