Greene PD installs plate reader
GREENE – Motorists driving with suspended registration beware, the Greene Police Department has added yet another tool to its traffic enforcement arsenal. Thanks to a state grant, the village PD is now the proud owner of an automatic license plate reader which can identify vehicles with suspended, revoked or stolen tags.
“There’s no getting away from it,” said Village of Greene Police Chief Steve Dutcher, who filed the grant application which made the purchase possible.
The equipment in question is a Mobile Plate Hunter 900, manufactured by ELSAG North America. The system, which was installed two weeks ago in the Dodge Durango driven by Officer Norm Shaffer, consists of two infrared scanners mounted to the SUV’s roof. Those scanners feed data to Shaffer’s laptop, which is synchronized daily with the state database.
The scanners are mounted so that one reads oncoming traffic, while the other is angled to scan parked cars, Shaffer explained, and are capable of reading up to 1,300 plates per second. As plates are scanned, they are referenced against the database. The system alerts the police officer if a tag is suspended, revoked or stolen.
Any suspensions are confirmed through dispatch before a ticket is issued, Shaffer reported, but “it in itself is probable cause for a stop.”
According to Dutcher, it took only 25 minutes after installation of the equipment for the system to get its first hit and by the end of its first hour in use, they’d written three tickets for suspended registration.
They’ve already located a place in the village, by the eastern end of Memorial Park, where if the Durango is positioned correctly it can read both east and west bound traffic on State Highway 206.
“There is an enormous amount of traffic (through the village) on 206,” reported Dutcher, who estimates 80 percent of the tickets written by the department are to drivers traveling on the state route.
The system has other capabilities as well, according to Shaffer. Not only can a particular license plate number be entered in, such as in the event of an Amber Alert or a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) on a vehicle. There is also a global positioning system which will allow the officer to recall when and where a vehicle was spotted, something the police officer said can be useful for criminal investigations and orders of protection.
While Greene residents will reap the benefits of the system, the cost to local taxpayers is exactly nil. According to Dutcher, the $29,000 equipment was purchased through a grant from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
With the installation, Greene became the fourth law enforcement agency in Chenango County to have an automated license plate reader. Similar equipment is already being used by the Chenango County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Norwich Police Force and the Village of Oxford Police Department.
The Greene PD may have a second plate reader before long as well. According to Dutcher, they had been denied in a previous round of funding through the DCJS grant program, at which time he had applied for another grant through the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation. This private foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life in Delaware County and neighboring municipalities, according to the organization’s website.
Dutcher said he expects to hear whether or not they have been granted funding through the O’Connor Foundation by the end of December.
“There’s no getting away from it,” said Village of Greene Police Chief Steve Dutcher, who filed the grant application which made the purchase possible.
The equipment in question is a Mobile Plate Hunter 900, manufactured by ELSAG North America. The system, which was installed two weeks ago in the Dodge Durango driven by Officer Norm Shaffer, consists of two infrared scanners mounted to the SUV’s roof. Those scanners feed data to Shaffer’s laptop, which is synchronized daily with the state database.
The scanners are mounted so that one reads oncoming traffic, while the other is angled to scan parked cars, Shaffer explained, and are capable of reading up to 1,300 plates per second. As plates are scanned, they are referenced against the database. The system alerts the police officer if a tag is suspended, revoked or stolen.
Any suspensions are confirmed through dispatch before a ticket is issued, Shaffer reported, but “it in itself is probable cause for a stop.”
According to Dutcher, it took only 25 minutes after installation of the equipment for the system to get its first hit and by the end of its first hour in use, they’d written three tickets for suspended registration.
They’ve already located a place in the village, by the eastern end of Memorial Park, where if the Durango is positioned correctly it can read both east and west bound traffic on State Highway 206.
“There is an enormous amount of traffic (through the village) on 206,” reported Dutcher, who estimates 80 percent of the tickets written by the department are to drivers traveling on the state route.
The system has other capabilities as well, according to Shaffer. Not only can a particular license plate number be entered in, such as in the event of an Amber Alert or a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) on a vehicle. There is also a global positioning system which will allow the officer to recall when and where a vehicle was spotted, something the police officer said can be useful for criminal investigations and orders of protection.
While Greene residents will reap the benefits of the system, the cost to local taxpayers is exactly nil. According to Dutcher, the $29,000 equipment was purchased through a grant from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
With the installation, Greene became the fourth law enforcement agency in Chenango County to have an automated license plate reader. Similar equipment is already being used by the Chenango County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Norwich Police Force and the Village of Oxford Police Department.
The Greene PD may have a second plate reader before long as well. According to Dutcher, they had been denied in a previous round of funding through the DCJS grant program, at which time he had applied for another grant through the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation. This private foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life in Delaware County and neighboring municipalities, according to the organization’s website.
Dutcher said he expects to hear whether or not they have been granted funding through the O’Connor Foundation by the end of December.
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