We’ve all seen these things either mounted on the trunk or somewhere on the roof of police cars. These seemingly odd looking pieces of equipment resemble something from a science fiction movie.
But what are they you ask? They are called plate readers or more appropriately Automatic Number Plate Recognition(ANPR) or License Plate Recognition(LPR). Both LPR and ANPR technology has gained popularity with many police departments with more than 70% of them using them.
The system uses infrared technology and a camera to take an image of the front or rear license plate installed on a vehicle, which is then analyzed by image processing software, which extracts the image and the plate information.
How many of you get a little nervous when you are driving and you see those plate readers and you immediately ask yourself if all your paperwork is in order. Well, I hope you can think fast…because your typical plate reader can accurately scan up to 1,800 license plates a minute. These device are so good that they can identify a plate on a car traveling in the opposite direction at more than 160 miles per hour. So before you can say oh s***, the police officer already knows everything they need to know to pull you over if something just isn’t right.
Now, we all know that I love technology and I embrace it…but I think most of you will have a problem with an aspect of it, and that is the who, what, when, where and why.
Check out this video and you will see what I mean.
Now it’s your turn to speak! We want to know your thoughts on this. Comment below and tell us what you think.
Darnell Eason
Darnell Eason is currently an active law enforcement officer with an agency in New York State. He has been active in the law enforcement community since 1996. Darnell is the Founder of Cops Court and Coffee. Cops Court and Coffee was started to bring a better understanding of the law by presenting it in lay-mans terms.
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