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Monday, October 6, 2008 7:10 PM EDT

Police add more eyes

By John T. Eberth
Olean Times Herald

Two infrared cameras mounted on the back of a city of Olean police patrol car can read license lates at speeds up to 60 mph. Photo by Darrell Gronemeier

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OLEAN - The Olean Police Department has a new crime-fighting tool that scans license plates as officers drive down the street.

The system uses infrared cameras mounted on the trunk of a patrol car and a computer linked to a database to scan licenses and determine if a license is registered to a wanted felon, or if the license is valid or suspended.

Police Chief Terry Schnell said the system can do in a split second what no officer could do on their own.

“This is a great tool for law enforcement,” he said. “We can take this unit and drive down the aisles in the parking lot at the Olean Center Mall and it will read all the plates of the vehicles parked on either side.”

Sgt. Randy Langdon wrote a grant to get the $6,000 system at no cost to the city. Sgt. Langdon said the system will read license plates at speeds up to 60 mph. He said the on-board computer compares all the licenses scanned to state police “hit list” of licenses held by drivers in violation. It can determine in seconds if a license is valid or suspended or revoked or held by someone without insurance or a vehicle registration.

“Or if a person is wanted and they have a vehicle registered in their name it will come out as a hit,” he said. “This will give us probable cause to pull someone over if they are in violation.”

Officers using the vehicle are assigned a “thumb drive,” a small computer storage device, so they can download all the licenses they’ve scanned during a day on duty.

Chief Schnell said the information could help police if they learn that a hit-and-run accident occurred in an area later. If the car drove by the area where the accident occurred, the license plates of cars parked near the scene can be retrieved.

Sgt. Langdon said Chief Schnell alerted him to the availability of grants to purchase the system several months ago. He said the chief asked him to research the system and determine if it was something the department could use.

“He’s constantly searching for ways to upgrade our efficiency without costing the taxpayers extra money,” he said.

(Contact reporter John Eberth at jeberth@oleantimesherald.com)

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