License Plate Scanner Newest High-Tech Crime Fighting Tool
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After Vester Flanagan fatally shot television reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward in Virginia, police were able to track down his car thanks to technology that scans license plates from an officer's car.
Similar surveillance technology is being used in the Chicago area.
They're called automatic license plate readers or ALPRs.
The cameras can pick up as many as 7,200 plate numbers a minute, searching them and instantly providing information to officers about a vehicle.
"Once there is an identifying factor or plate, it is ran against a certain hot list situated within a law enforcement repository, said Cook County Deputy Brian White.
White says that statewide database lets officers know what kind of crime the car may have been involved in.
"Wanted persons, wanted vehicles, stolen vehicles, and information like that and also missing persons as well," White said.
The sheriff's department has been scanning plates with the readers for five years, with only nine cars equipped with the devices.
The high-tech equipment costs from $3,000 to $6,000 per camera.
The license plate readers also helped police track down the suspect in Monday's Delta State University shooting, after cameras captured him crossing Mississippi state lines.