Police to expand license plate reader program
License plate readers have been so effective in helping Fairfax County Police catch criminals, the department plans to deploy more of them.
The U.S. Department of Justice awarded Fairfax County a $136,270 grant to expand the program. The funds will be used by the police department to install additional license plate readers (LPRs) to combat a rise in violent carjackings and auto thefts.
The FCPD launched a pilot program a year ago to replace old-style LPRs with more effective ones from the Flock Safety company. The pilot started with two new LPRs; another 25 were added later.
The new LPRs send real-time alerts to officers when a stolen car or a missing person passes by.
The Police Department reports the following successes from the pilot program:
- 204 people arrested;
- 404 felony charges;
- 208 misdemeanor charges;
- 612 arrest charges;
- 125 stolen vehicles recovered;
- 53 cases with recovered narcotics;
- 22 guns recovered;
- 18 missing persons located.
“LPRs have significantly enhanced investigative efforts and solved hundreds of complex cases over the past year, including malicious woundings, attempted rapes, burglaries, and other offenses,” the police department reports. “Most recently, FCPD used LPR technology to identify an offender in an abhorrent indecent liberties case involving juvenile victims.”
In that case, an LPR helped police find a van belonging to a resource teacher at Groveton Elementary School in the Mount Vernon District who had exposed himself to at least five juveniles. He was charged in October with taking indecent liberties with a child and 13 counts of distributing child pornography.
Related story: Police Department to install new, more effective license plate readers
“LPR technology has proven to be a game-changer for our community,” says Police Chief Kevin Davis. “It has enhanced our ability to protect and serve Fairfax County and the pronounced results we’ve seen this year are a testament to the hard work of our officers and our community’s steadfast support.”
The FCPD does not get any LPR alerts regarding immigration enforcement warrants, driver’s licenses, registration, or inspection violations. Data from LPRs are kept for just 30 days.
That Is GREAT
Now if the State would grant expanded authority for to the County for speed cameras…
If the Commonwealth would expand the law to permit the police to use the readers in apartment complex parking lots to record the vast numbers of Maryland vehicles that still are registered in Maryland to avoid VA inspection and FFC personal property taxes. I’d like to see a subset of unarmed police whose only responsibility would be parking enforcement similar to what Philadelphia has. The regular cops don’t respond to 5 cars parked on both sides of a fire lane , with motors running , while the owners run into ZIPS cleaners. There’s plenty of legal parking but the owners can’t walk 29 feet??