CA- High-tech device polices streets

11-16-2008 California:
Lomita has become the latest South Bay city to begin using computerized technology capable of scanning thousands of license plates a day.

It is presently the only local city that contracts with the Sheriff's Department for law enforcement services to use what's known as automatic number plate recognition (PlateScan). (Carson had one, but the car it was installed in was totaled in a crash.)

Consisting of a trio of cameras attached to the roof of a patrol car that take snapshots of the plates of parked vehicles and those approaching in the opposing lane, the images are instantly analyzed by a computer.

Officers are immediately notified by an audible tone if, say, the car is stolen.

"You forget the thing is doing work while you're driving," said Deputy John Despot, Lomita's community officer.

"It has a 95 percent accuracy rate," he added. "This technology has the ability to run up to 1,000 plates an hour."

That's far more efficient than the former method that required officers to manually enter license plate numbers into a system to check them. Previously, a diligent officer might be able to check 30 to 40 plates per shift.

The infrared camera can also take pictures of license plates at night and at speeds up to

140 mph.

Operational for the past two months, the two $32,000 units Lomita purchased and installed have already begun to pay off.

Recently a man involved in a domestic dispute and driving his wife's vehicle she had reported stolen was apprehended near Pacific Coast Highway and Palos Verdes Drive North.
Also, while driving to Norwalk to get the system's software updated, Despot happened to drive by a stolen vehicle. The driver was caught.

So far the Lomita sheriff's station has recovered seven stolen vehicles that it would not have done previously, Despot said.

But stolen vehicles are far from the only application:

Vehicles tagged by an Amber Alert, used to find missing children, also can be tracked.

Deputies will soon begin using the system to check whether registered sex offenders are living the required distance away from schools, parks and other restricted locations.

Deputies will also be able to determine whether the registered owner of a particular vehicle has warrants out for his or her arrest.

Or how about linking the system up to a database of people who have outstanding parking tickets? That, too, can be done.

If all this sounds a little big brotherish, Despot said the American Civil Liberties Union has signed off on the idea because it does not involve racial profiling.

It is simply a neutral data-gathering system that can perform a task quicker than a person.

That, in part, is why Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Doug Stern, an attorney, doesn't believe the system crosses any lines when it comes to privacy.

"Should you really have an expectation of privacy when you drive on a public street?" asked Stern, whose town soon will have its own sheriff's patrol car equipped with the device. "It clearly has very substantial benefits in terms of crime prevention and crime solving."

The database is continually being updated and enlarged.

For instance, the Sheriff's Department has 17 million plates on file.

And local law enforcement agencies are buying devices from the same manufacturer so that information can be pooled.

Other South Bay cities using the devices include:

El Segundo, which has one license plate recognition system. Since officers began using it in September 2007, it has read 324,682 license plates.

Torrance has purchased one unit, and is in the process of testing it and training officers to use it.

Redondo Beach has had one for about a year.

"We recover one stolen car - sometimes two - per shift," Sgt. Phil Keenan said. "It's fantastic."

Gardena has been using one license plate scanner for the past two months. It has recovered eight stolen vehicles, according to Lt. Mike Saffell.

Manhattan Beach also recently approved the purchase of two of the devices, while Hawthorne and the Los Angeles Police Department also have deployed the system.

What the Sheriff's Department has dubbed ASAP - the acronym stands for Advanced Surveillance And Protection - is still in its infancy.

So far, 29 department cars - including two in Lomita - are equipped with the system. By early next year that will rise to 45 patrol cars.

Using geographic information systems technology that can pinpoint a vehicle's location accurately combined with the compact mobile digital units aboard each equipped patrol car, ever more data is gathered.

Patterns and trends can emerge - that vehicle caught on camera repeatedly parked outside a house where the registered owner does not live, might signify it's a crack house, for instance.

"We're kind of doing intelligence gathering," Despot said. "(Data) we're capturing today might solve a crime next year." ..News Source.. by Nick Green and Sandy Mazza, Staff Writers