N Woodbury Police Use New License Plate Reader

North Woodbury Township Police Department recently installed the Motorola Vigilant Automatic License Plate Reader on its patrol vehicle.

Chief of Police Lance Morris said the purchase of the system was approved at the township's July meeting and has been in operation since October 1.

He received a total of three quotes with Motorola's being the number one recommended choice with multiple departments that already use it. 

Morris said he was able to purchase the system for $12,650 with a year warranty and a five-year license fee valued at $5,250.

"I am very grateful to our township supervisors, they are proactive in supporting law enforcement and providing necessary equipment, while keeping up with technology to help keep the community safe," he said.

Morris said this is a two-camera system, front-facing and rear-facing. 

"More cameras may be added, but for our geographical area that would not be necessary," he said.

Morris said over 3,000 agencies across the country are using the Motorola ALPR system, which allows users to share information for investigations.

"There are currently over 73 billion scanned detections in the database which grows every day," he said.

The cameras will

automatically run vehicle registrations on every vehicle traveling in both directions while the police car is in motion or stationary.

"Its technology allows the cameras to capture plates at speeds over 150mph and scan over 1000 tags per minute," Morris said. "The cameras have infrared technology which allows them to be effective in total darkness."

The purpose of the plate readers is to locate expired and suspended registrations and search the NCIC database for stolen vehicles, stolen tags, missing persons, warrants, and other hotlists that users can add.

"This system will provide a great resource to law enforcement to assist in locating missing persons or endangered persons," he said.

Morris said for example if a resident from a nursing home with dementia would get in their car and leave the state without their cell phone.

"Let's say they left their phone at home so there is no way to track them, I can add that person's license plate number to the Motorola database hitlist," he said. "When they drive past any of those agencies with that system the license plate would "HIT" on any of those users telling them they are a missing person."

Morris said the system also allows users to search tags by partial registration even when they don't have the whole tag.

They can also search vehicles by type, make, model, or color.

"This system will be a great resource in suspicious vehicle cases which our department investigates multiple times per year, vehicle pursuits, and other crimes," he said. "By sharing the data with other agencies, it has been a proven tool in solving violent crimes like assaults, burglaries, and homicides. 

Morris said his department handled 147 calls for service in September.