Technology Used by Law Enforcement to Keep You Safe Part 2
FOLEY Ala.
By Rick McCann
January 25, 2025
One of the most useful pieces of technology that police in many areas use in their “Real Time Crime Centers” is also one of the most controversial.
ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) technology was first used by the U.S. Border Patrol in the late 1990s.
But prototypes began working around 1979.
With the mass reduction of physical police officers to patrol communities during the past ten years, there has been a steady increase in surveillance cameras and license plate readers which act as force multipliers, and the technology is undisputably effective.
An APLR is a camera mounted on a power pole or any fixed object that scans license plates as they pass the camera and in a split second runs the vehicle information through numerous databases which can identify if the vehicle is stolen, or if the owner of the vehicle is wanted or suspected of crimes.
A picture is taken, and he ALPR electronically sends that information of a “hit” to law enforcement to investigate.
APLRs have aided law enforcement nationwide in the apprehension of tens of thousands of violent criminals, kidnappers, murderers and sex traffickers. Thousands of missing children have been found and returned safely to their parents.
And countless stolen vehicles have been recovered and given back to their rightful owners.
License Plate Readers are not trackers and do not follow people’s movements as many have wrongly theorized.
As with any surveillance camera, even the ones that you may use at your home or business, they merely take a picture or video and memorialize the event/incident or crime.
Some law enforcement agencies also use mobile license plate readers inside their patrol cars. Smaller cameras mounted outside of the vehicle scans license plates as they pass the “view” of the camera and as with the ALPR, runs the tag through several databases to ascertain the same data as the fixed license plate readers do.
Controversy has come from Constitutionalists who think that it’s a violation of a person’s right, even accusing law enforcement agencies of violating the Fourth Amendment which protects the right of the people to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants to be based on probable cause and specific description.
But those claims have been defeated in court because no person is being seized, searched or arrested at the time that the tag is read. A picture or video is merely being recorded, in public and in plain view no different than any person taking a picture of any person, vehicle or object on a public street.
Other claims have been that the police are tracking everyone’s movements, storing data and using it for nefarious or unlawful investigations of the vehicle owner, their relatives or business associates which has repeatedly proven to be incorrect.
However, during the past three years, state government has restricted some uses of the LPR, defined limitations on storage of data and in some cases restricted what type of crimes that the technology can be used for.
I contacted several law enforcement agencies in Baldwin and Mobile Counties, and most said that they couldn’t comment on what technology that they do or do not use. One agency confirmed that some technology is used but that they could not be more specific because of the public’s distrust of the police and the recent years of anti-police rhetoric.
However, through other sources, we learned that there are indeed numerous pieces of technology being used in our area from gunshot detection, to APLRs.
One of these resources is the Gulf Coast Technology Center in Mobile is an intelligence driven investigative resource center for law enforcement along the Gulf Coast that assists police through the use of technology and intelligence resources.
The use of technology by police is of the utmost importance in solving violent crimes and when used properly and lawfully, are valuable assets to any community.
In Part Three, we’ll explore other tools that are helping law enforcement to protect you with fewer officers including one that a local mayor recently became excited about.
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