CaptionThe Fayetteville Police Department has a new tool to track stolen cars -- and it has already worked.
A Justice Assistance Grant, (JAG) allowed the Fayetteville Police Department to buy two license plate reader systems, which were about $30,000 each.
It's the second police agency in North Carolina to utilize this type of technology.
The readers have been in use for about one month and are currently installed in two patrol cars within the Campbellton and Cross Creek districts of the city.
Here is how they work: Each vehicle has three cameras placed on the trunk of the vehicle. The cameras use Optimal Character Recognition, or OCR technology, to scan the plates. They can read up to 1,100 license plates per minute, meaning the officer's doesn't have to manually enter plate numbers into a computer database.
Within the first week of the readers being installed, an officer conducting routine patrol in the Marketfair Mall parking lot off of Skibo road, located a stolen vehicle after the reader scanned and identified the vehicle as being stolen out of Fayetteville.
The readers are interfaced with the Fayetteville Police Department's records system, which allows officers the ability to locate any stolen vehicle reported within the city.
The police department has obtained permission from the State Bureau of Investigations and is in the process of interfacing the reader systems with the state system.
Traffic Supervisor Sergeant Eric Dow said once that happens, the readers will help officers with Silver Alerts, Amber Alerts and stolen vehicles statewide.
The police department is trying to get a third reader, which is scheduled to be in place by the end of the year.
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