Camera scans for stolen cars
New technology simplifies search for vehicles, fugitives
It takes only a fraction of a second for the new infrared camera mounted on the outside of Kalispell Police Department squad car to read a license plate number.
And in only a matter of minutes, Patrol Lt. Wade Rademacher cruised the entire Kalispell Center Mall parking lot checking for stolen vehicles or cars with plates connected to other crimes - an accomplishment that without the license plate recognition system would have taken even the most industrious officer significantly longer.
"It's another tool, basically, that enhances what an officer can do with just their eyes and memory," Rademacher said Tuesday.
The advanced license plate recognition technology, which the department will experiment with for the next month, scans the license plates of passing or parked cars and compares them to state and national databases of stolen vehicles.
"We don't have a lot of stolen vehicles up here, although there are a lot of them from other areas that pass through," said Rademacher, noting that the system can check thousands of passing license plates in real time, allowing officers to identify stolen vehicles they never would have known about otherwise.
According to the Montana Board of Crime Control, 175 vehicles were reported stolen in Flathead County in 2008, with 52 of those inside Kalispell city limits.
But the system, which can process up to 15 plates per second, also compares plates to national databases of vehicles connected to fugitives.
In addition, officers can input directly the plates of suspect vehicles used in local crimes, including hit-and-run crashes, reckless driving complaints, and Amber Alerts.
"And that's just by driving by them," Rademacher said.
Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset said he hoped the technology could be used to cut down on the number of the city's outstanding warrants.
"Right now, with our staffing levels the way they are, we're looking for any technology that can help us do our job more efficiently," Nasset said.
Rademacher, who believes the Kalispell Police Department is the first Montana law enforcement agency to receive the technology, said the department has scanned more than 4,200 license plates since the system was installed last week.
Infrared cameras allow the system to work day and night, snapping images of vehicles from as far away as 30 feet and moving at 70 mph. A computer translates the pixels of a digital image into the text and numbers of a license plate, which appears on a screen inside the squad car.
The officer is then alerted by a small beep to a suspicious plate, whose GPS coordinates are recorded.
New York-based Elsag North America installed the system, which runs about $20,000 per unit, on one of the department's squad cars for a monthlong trial. Nasset said he would evaluate the system's performance and benefits to the department before purchasing it.
"We wouldn't invest any money into this at this point until we get clear direction it would be a tool that we could use," Nasset said.
Grants to pay for the system also may be available, limiting the direct costs to Kalispell taxpayers, he added.
Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com