Technology is Helping Our Police to Prevent and Solve Crimes
By: Rick McCann
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
December 1, 2027
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. By now many people have noticed cameras on poles at intersections, along local roads and more are coming.
Automatic License Plate Readers have been approved in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, and others have already been operating in some other areas of Baldwin and Mobile Counties.
The ALPR reads the vehicles license plate and within a split-second searches numerous databases to verify if the vehicle has been reported stolen, or of the driver is wanted for a crime or suspected of other criminal activities.
During the past ten years, they have proven themselves to be invaluable in stopping crimes, apprehending wanted criminals and as an investigative tool and are a force multiplier for unstaffed police agencies.
Some police agencies also have the APLR attached to their patrol vehicles, and they also scan all license plates that pass by the camera and conduct the same searches as those affixed to a light pole.
And while it is legal to install in public areas and with permission, on private property, nationwide activists continue to push back on what they call an invasion of privacy.
However, the cameras do not track people not suspected or wanted for a crime. Nor do the cameras invade anyone’s privacy while performing the task that they have been designed to do.
Everyone has the right to film anything and anyone in a public space. We all it daily with cellphone cameras and other digital devices.
As our area continues to change, and not all of it is for the good, more people moving in means more crime. It’s just a fact.
While many crimes committed along the Gulf Coast are property crimes such as vandalism, theft and burglaries, many other involve violence, drugs and shootings.
If the police use the technology in the manner that they’ve been created for, most area citizens will find that the technology is very beneficial to most of the community who do not commit crimes and aren’t wanted fugitives. And when police solve a crime, capture a criminal or recover someone’s stolen vehicle, most of us will be applauding.
Nationwide, police have strict laws and state requirements on the use of technology, the length that data is stored and how the equipment is used.
Private property owners from apartments to malls to office buildings have used surveillance cameras to protect their property and help prevent crimes since 1927.
Technology is our friend as we have found in our homes and workplace, and law enforcement has found it to be excellent at what it does to provide law abiding citizens.
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