Plate Reader Helps Police Find Stolen Cars, Make Warrant Arrests

Glendora Police Department is reaping the rewards of modern technology in the form of a device called a plate reader that is attached to the top of police cars and reads license plates through the eyes of cameras.

The device, manufactured by PIPS Technology, Knoxville, Tenn., uses automated license plate recognition technology and optical character recognition software. Last week it helped Glendora Police locate two stolen cars.

But it is also instrumental in helping officers find people with warrants. And the device has a huge memory.

“The more information you put into it, the more you get out of it,” said police Lt. Rob Lamborghini.

Glendora Police Department has the plate reader installed on three cars. The system has been in use for more than three years. They were originally obtained through a grant applied for by the department.

“We had them early and we’ve had some good hits,” Lamborghini said.

Although the system is automatic, police still have to go back and verify that the car is stolen or the driver has a warrant. It doesn’t totally replace police investigations in retrieving stolen cars or finding criminals on the road.

But is has been helpful, Lamborghini said.

The PIPS plate reader cameras enable the system to record the license plate of every vehicle the patrol car encounters. The cameras take infrared photos of the license plates on cars traveling ahead of and bind the police car.

In addition, side cameras take photos of cars parked on either side of the road.

Sophisticated algorithms then translate the license plate image into text for immediate cross-referencing against any number of wanted vehicle databases.

The system matches the plate read to a hotlist of stolen vehicles, warrants, known criminal, DMV infractions and those with outstanding parking fines.

The technical name for the system is automatic number plate recognition system or ANPR.

Glendora Police Department is one of more than 50 agencies in Southern California using the PIPS plate recognition system. The PIPs units are capable of reading license plates at rates up to 3,600 vehicles per hour.

That would be in a big city situation.

In Glendora, the number of reads can vary greatly depending on the time of day and the day of the week.

And the officer does not have to be driving slowly for the license recognition system to work. The PIPS system alerts the officer by audible alarm the instant the car passes a vehicle with a suspect license plate.

Because it covers a large area quickly, the system provides improved field detection of wanted vehicles. It is also effective in data sharing across jurisdictions.

One of the cars found last week in Glendora was out of Gardena. It was found in the 400 block of E. Arrow Highway.

The Glendora police officer just happened to be driving by the Cadillac Escalade parked on the side of the road. But the camera saw the license and the alarm sounded.

The location of the theft was determined quickly and the car returned to its owner.