[privacy] Found in 1/16th of a second

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS01/607170362
  
By Kate Holloway
kate.holloway () indystar com
 
When Lawrence Police Officer Craig Herbert was killed by a driver in a
stolen vehicle last year, his fellow officers responded by looking for ways
to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.
 
  
What Officer Todd Burris found was a two-camera license-plate reader and GPS
system that is fastened atop patrol vehicles and can scan an entire parking
lot of cars in less than five minutes.
 
The Lawrence Police Department is the first law enforcement agency in
Indiana to have such a system.
It takes 1/16th of a second for a Lawrence police officer to run a license
plate through a nationwide FBI database of reported stolen vehicles.
 
The system has helped the department recover 21 stolen cars in the seven
weeks it has been in use. The department has one system in place but will
consider buying more after a six-month trial.
 
Police said the system also scans license plates while officers are on
patrol and helps catch other types of criminals. In one case, it identified
a stolen vehicle driven by an armed man who had robbed a coffee shop on June
16. Lawrence police also have used the system to assist the Indianapolis
Police Department on some car theft cases.
 
Burris hopes to see the technology, manufactured by PIPS Technology Inc.,
adopted by more police departments.
"Who knows -- (it) could be the next iPod," he said.
 
The idea, police said, is to recover more stolen cars while they're parked
rather than find them on the road or wait around for suspicious persons in a
parking lot and begin a chase.
 
...

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