LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan State Police (MSP) are planning to install more license plate readers throughout the state. These readers would alert the police if a flagged license plate has been spotted on the road, making it easier to track down serious offenders.

“We can’t be everywhere,” Lieutenant Rene Gonzales told WILX 10. “There could be a trooper on one end of the county and that license plate reader is picking up a vehicle that’s on the other side of the county. We can get over there, get that vehicle stopped.”

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As part of its pilot program, MSP began installing license plate readers along metro Detroit freeways early last month. They have not announced how long the program will last or how many readers were installed.

Each reader, which resembles those used in other states at toll booths, is connected to a database of license plates that is kept for up to 30 days. If a crime occurred near a reader, police could search the database for vehicles in the area that matched witness descriptions. The readers would permit further investigation of those vehicles.

State Police Lieutenant Michael Shaw reassured drivers that these readers are not used to detect traffic offenses, since using cameras for this purpose is illegal in Michigan.

“They don’t detect speed. There’s no facial recognition. It doesn’t take a picture of anybody in the car,” Shaw told WYXZ. “It takes a picture of the back of the car and the license plate.”

The same technology installed in Detroit is already being used in other parts of Michigan, including Ypsilanti, Jackson County, and Parkland among others. If the pilot program proves successful, police are hoping to use the technology around the state.

Shaw called the new system “modern policing” and added, “Technology is the wave of the future for everything.”