PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL -- When it comes to catching 'bad guys' or even missing persons... Every second counts.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is using advanced technology on the streets and hoping to get speedy results.
"Most people just think they're radar units," said Lt. Michael Wingate.
But they're actually cameras. Mounted atop a small fleet of Sheriff's Office Units, Lt. Wingate says they're new toys that do serious business.
"The whiter stuff you see is an infa-red so it helps us see in the dark," he said.
His unit has three--one to the side, front and reer to catch vehicle plates in almost any direction.
The camera snaps photos of license plates as we drive by vehicles. Almost instantly the tag is read by the computer and run through a database, eliminating the need to manually punch in plate numbers to be processed.
"We can go through the airport in an hour. I would be willing to say it would take a couple of days to do in manually, one person," he said.
You know what they say, time is money, and the Lt. says each camera costs about $7,000 dollars, and the whole system, as much as $30,000 dollars.
"Anything stolen, missing people, vehicles used in felonies, robberies, bank robberies," and even sexual predators around schools and playgrounds Lt. Wingate said.
Tag numbers matched in the database will trigger an alert.
Tuesday the computer set off an 'FCIC Alert.'
"So this is yours you got a registration?" Lt. Wingate asked the driver as he was getting into his vehicle outside of a store, "What's going on is I just ran your tag and it says your car is stolen but let me make sure it's the right one okay?"
Even computers can make mistakes.
"The stollen car was the G246CF and he was in G146CF," he said.
That's why the Lt. says it will take one person driving and a second to verify the computer made the right match.
Currently the Sheriff's Office says they have three vehicles equipped with these systems but they say they're in the process of training reserve deputies to run these vehicles full-time.
